Present thesis will concentrate on the attention to reduce the input of whole-body vibrations transmitted to test drivers in durability tests. On behalf of Volvo Cars, the purpose has been to develop a concept solution on the driver's seat. Solving this problem is significant due to test driver’s safety and theirs ergonomically conditions. This project is conducted as a Bachelor of Science thesis for the Innovation & design engineer program at Karlstad University.   

The assignment is in collaboration with the research and development department Proving Ground Testing Group located outside Borås on their test facility, Hällered Proving Ground (HPG). Where they perform endurance tests on rough roads with complete vehicles. The main goal of this project is to increase the time drivers can actively drive the test cars each day, as well as reduce the exposure of whole-body vibration transmitted to test drivers.  

The project has been carried out through the Engineering Design Process, which is a substantial model for working with creativity during product development. The report consists of a pre-study in areas like dynamic systems of vibration, ergonomics, previous research, benchmarking and seat structure. This was achieved by identifying the problem areas in an early stage. A number of concepts solutions were evaluated and compared according to implementability and realizability. The final decision was made on a concept, resulted in changing the current foam in the seat. Thereafter, it presents the evaluation of materials throughout the material database CES EduPack and through product research.    

The last part of the report presents results from laboratory testings and a field test. The objective was to determine which arrangement provided the best isolation throughout different combinations of materials/products and material thicknesses.

The result of the test showed that an increase of material thickness was the optimal solution. Polyurethane (PUR) foam is best suited for this and factors such as material properties and combination of materials has less or none impact on reducing whole-body vibrations. Therefore, the current foam can maybe be enough, but it needs to be evaluated further. This solution doesn't do any major changes to the cars specification and therefore the cars can be evaluated as before.  

Further development is to build a prototype with thicker dimensions and implement it in a test vehicle. Subsequently verifying a decrease of exposure from whole-body vibrations, in the form of a real-life test.

The solution is intended solely for test vehicles at Volvo’s endurance track facility at Hällered. The assignment was to facilitate working conditions for test drivers and make the work more efficient. The thesis purpose was to achieve a sustainable solution, according to Volvo Cars` requirements to reduce exposure from whole-body vibrations and this project is therefore fulfilled. It was important that the solution was easy to implement and can be applied on all platforms, correspondently be used on future test cars from Volvo.