Analysis of Vibration Effects on Health in Case of In-Coach Rail Travel

The objective of this study was to determine the quality of comfort level for passengers during in-coach rail travel with reference to the data collected using 3 axis accelerometer and analog data logger. The data module was designed for the purpose of sensing, measuring and monitoring of vibrations felt by the commuters on the rail tracks. Input data in terms of 3 axis is analysed using Hilbert Huang transform (HHT) which decomposes into various intrinsic mode functions (IMF) and further these IMF’s are given as input to the fuzzy inference system which decides the range of comfort for travelling with vibration based on physiotherapist's opinion. This paper gives an exhaustive study on quality of comfort during travelling. According to experimental studies, low-amplitude high-frequency vibration is anabolic to bone tissue. For the safety assessment of different vibration protocols, the vibration exposure limits indicated in the ISO 2631-1 standard are considered. Key words— Fuzzy inference system, Hilbert-Huang transform, Quality of comfort.