Patricia Silva

The seat characteristics have high relevance in overall comfort on any transportation means. In particular, the foam’s mechanical properties, interface pressure, and contact temperature play an important role in low- or no-vibration situations regarding static comfort. The present work presents the complete protocol for a static evaluation of different foams and seat covers to assess railway seats. Based on the evaluation of the foam’s mechanical properties and interface pressure profiles, it was concluded that higher-density foam (80 kg/m³) is the most favorable. Regarding the foam cover, a thermographic assessment demonstrated that the fabric cover that induces lower temperatures at passenger interface contact promotes higher comfort levels. It should be highlighted that experiments were conducted on real train seat cushions and environments using a thermographic camera and pressure map sensor.

Railways are one of the most used public transportation modes. Due to the low environmental impact, governments are promoting their use as a solution for mass transportation for middle-distance. Critical parameters to satisfy passengers and attract new ones are related to comfort, safety, and user conditions. Comfort is classified by dynamic and static methods, ideally combining both. The former is based on the comfort evaluation in the presence of vibration, whilst the latter is applied to standstill situations. Vibration, derived from the train motion, will be presented throughout the trip; thus, it is a major concern. For the same reason, assessing vibration levels associated with comfort gives important information about the train’s condition and its major maintenance or repair needs. Vibration transmissibility allows the study of the vibration frequency that is being transmitted to the user. In this chapter, the complete seat structure and the passenger’s comfort are evaluated combined with the interface pressure. This chapter presents the commonly used methodologies and results from the tests conducted on railway environment whilst running passenger service. These tests report the seat comfort evaluation and a new methodology to identify train and rail maintenance needs based on comfort analysis.

Railways are among the most efficient and widely used mass transportation systems for mid-range distances. To enhance the attractiveness of this type of transport, it is necessary to improve the level of comfort, which is much influenced by the vibration derived from the train motion and wheel-track interaction; thus, railway track infrastructure conditions and maintenance are a major concern. Based on discomfort levels, a methodology capable of detecting railway track infrastructure failures is proposed. During regular passenger service, acceleration and GPS measurements were taken on Alfa Pendular and Intercity trains between Porto (Campanhã) and Lisbon (Oriente) stations. ISO 2631 methodology was used to calculate instantaneous floor discomfort levels. By matching the results for both trains, using GPS coordinates, 12 track section locations were found to require preventive maintenance actions. The methodology was validated by comparing these results with those obtained by the EM 120 track inspection vehicle, for which similar locations were found. The developed system is a complementary condition-based maintenance tool that presents the advantage of being low-cost while not disturbing regular train operations.

Railways are one of the most widely used mass transportation systems. Its superior transportation capacity, low environmental impact, high safety, and comfort have been leading to a continuous increase in passengers. To keep this trend going, it is crucial to improve the railways’ attractiveness and comfort levels. A rail journey’s comfort performance is rather complex, involving the analysis of multiple factors. Those raised by the vehicle motion and seat performance are the focus of vehicle designers’ concerns. Therefore, only a combination of static and dynamic comfort methodologies can accurately characterize passengers’ comfort. This work aimed to perform a systematic review concerning the comfort evaluation of train passengers. The bibliographic search yielded 62 studies on static and dynamic comfort evaluation methods. Results show a lack of experiments conducted on real rail environments, leading to weak conclusions regarding the real in-service conditions that train users face. Moreover, an investigation gap concerning the simultaneous application of both static and dynamic methodologies was observed. Therefore, more investigations are needed to evaluate and increase passengers’ comfort and promote rail usage as a daily transportation system.

Railways are one of the most efficient and widely used mass transportation systems for mid-range distances, also being pointed out as the best strategy to reach European Union decarbonisation goals. However, to increase railways attractiveness, it is necessary to improve the quality of the ride, namely its comfort, by decreasing the vibration at the passenger level. This article describes the experimental vibration modal identification of train seats based on a dedicated set of dynamic tests performed on Alfa Pendular and Intercity trains. This work uses two output-only modal identification techniques: the transmissibility functions and the Enhanced Frequency Domain Decomposition (EFDD) method. The last method allows us to clearly distinguish the seat structural movements, particularly the ones related to torsion and bending of the seat frame, from the local vertical foam vibrations. The natural frequencies and mode shapes are validated by matching the results derived from the transmissibility functions and EFDD method. The identified modal parameters are particularly relevant to characterise the vibration transmissibility provided by the foams (local transmissibility) and the vibration transmissibility derived from the metallic seat frame (global transmissibility).

Measurements of whole-body vibration are fundamental to access and evaluate comfort levels and possible injury development in the human being. International standards such as ISO 2631 and ISO 10326 are dedicated to the measurement and validation of mechanical systems to access vibration levels. Nowadays, the traditional measurement devices require multiple components and so hence become highly bulky, do not allow autonomous data recording, and are expensive. Following the previously mentioned standards, the present research is focused on the design and validation of a new and economic whole-body vibration measurement device. The developed device, besides being capable to measure the whole-body vibration, allows the user to select multiple sample ratings, is capable to record data on a µSD card, is easily moved and adapted, and is autonomous and low cost. This device is composed of three main components: a tri-axial accelerometer, a protective metal case, and semi-rigid rubber disc. Shaker tests were conducted to evaluate the measurement capability of the whole system and the influence of each component on the vibration measurements. This article will introduce the design and development steps for the proposed system. Concerning the validation phase, its results will be discussed and analyzed.

Trains are becoming a popular way of transportation driven by comfort and ecology reasons. Latest statistics showed an increasing of 40% on the number of passengers in the last decade. The development of new high-speed trains promoted an evolution on the coaches interiors, as to make railway transportation more attractive. To cope this objective, new requirements were set, namely high levels of comfort and safety. In complement, multiple long-term ride comfort evaluation methods have been developed. The aim of this work is to present a review on the passengers’ comfort perception in railway vehicles. The standards ISO 2631, EN 12299 and the Sperling’s method are the most used ones. They refer several factors, as the vibration (level, frequency and duration), temperature, noise and area of the train per capita. Additionally, the perception of reduced accidents delayed the studies of passive security. Therefore, recent works focus on reducing the consequences of the second impact in case of accident and minimize the biomechanics injury criterion, through new interiors design layouts. Keywords: Railway vehicles, Passengers comfort, Posture, Ride evaluation, Passive safety

Polymer needles for medical injections offer a range of opportunities like compatibility with magnetic resonance scanning and simultaneous delivery of more than one drug. However, the lower stiffness property of polymers compared to steel is a challenge for penetration. This paper explores strategies for higher penetration success, which include impulse insertion, tissue stretching, and different tip geometries. The strategies are experimentally examined using three layers of nitrile rubber gloves and sticking glue to create an artificial skin model. It is demonstrated that polymer needles have higher penetration rates when the strategies are applied. Penetration rates were only 10–20% when using slow speed insertion (0.2 mm/s) but 100% penetration rates was achieved using impulse insertion. Penetration forces are similar for slow insertion speed and high speed (impulse insertion) and for needles made out of different material (polymer or steel). Conical and pyramidal tips were studied for polymer needles and a commercial bevel steel needle tip. The result was lower penetration forces and 100% penetration success was possible using the pyramidal polymer needles. For the model in study was observed a similar behavior (penetration force and rate of penetration success) for steel and polymer pyramidal needles. An analysis of variance statistical analysis show significance when using springs and strain, as well for the combination of both.

Background/purpose: During the injection of a fluid in a tissue model, the fluid might be affected by the needle tip configuration and the number of channels. Thus, the objective of the present work is to observe the influence of different needle tips and number of channels on the spread of a fluid.Methods: Fluid distribution data were obtained after injecting 0.3 mL of fluid into a foamed polymer model with a velocity of 2 mm/s. The spread area and the depth were determined for 3 different types of hypodermic needles: Single channel needles with bevel tip and blunt tip and a needle with conical tip and 3 internal channels.Results: The bevel tip provides a higher spread in the direction where the bevel points and reaches larger depths than the other two needles. The spread for the blunt tip and the polymer needle is equally distributed on both sides of the needle. The largest horizontal area around the tip is achieved by the 3‐channel needle.Conclusion: The tip configuration and number of channels have an influence on the distribution of fluid. The bevelled needle directs the fluid and reaches larger depths compared with the 3‐channel needle that gets more horizontal spread.