Experimental Study of the Effect of Vehicle Velocity on the Ride Comfort of a Car on a Road with Different Types of Roughness

Vehicle speed control is one of the most important factors at increasing safety, reducing the number and severity of road accidents. Also, other factors such as inappropriate designing, the overuse of speed bumps, nonconformity to the prevailing standards of the world in construction, maintenance, and repair of roads can cause damage to the car suspension and consequently brings the discomfort of car occupants when crossing the actual road under different driving conditions (various speeds and maneuvers). In the present paper, the effect of different vehicle velocities on the comfort of occupants was investigated empirically. To this end, a passenger vehicle was driven at different constant speeds of 30, 40, and 50 km/h on the actual road which has various types of speed bumps and uneven such as sewer door. Also, the accelerometer sensor of mobile was used to extract the acceleration time histories entered on occupants in three different directions X, Y, and Z. Finally, the BS 6841 and ISO 2631-1 standards were used to compare the laboratory-measured vertical acceleration at different speeds with the vertical acceleration that occupants feel comfortable. The results indicated that the maximum speed for not feeling the discomfort of occupants is 67 km/h. Moreover, the maximum human tolerance was obtained approximately 178 min of continuous travel. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.