Long term exposure to high amplitude whole-body vibration is strongly associated with the development of back injury. Mobile plant used at mines are likely to be a source of high vibration amplitudes and management of the hazard requires systematic measurement of vibration levels. This paper describes measurements of whole-body vibration taken during projects funded by the Coal Services Health ...

This paper presents the influence of non-linearity on the dynamic response of floating pile foundation subject to vertical vibration. A detailed theoretical investigation of stiffness and damping parameters is made for floating piles with different shear modulus reduction ratio of the weak zone soil. The accuracy of the non-linear analysis for predicting the dynamic response depends upon the ch...

Whole body vibration training is widely used in rehabilitation and sports activities to improve muscle strength, balance, and flexibility. However, the molecular mechanisms of vertical vibration (VV) training and their effect on the myogenesis of myoblasts remain undefined. This study was undertaken to address the hypothesis that VV can enhance the expression of ECM proteins and myogenic regula...

We present experimental study of vibrofluidized granular materials by high speed photography. Statistical results present the averaged dynamic behaviors of granular materials in one cycle, including the variations of height, velocity and mechanical energy of the center of mass. Furthermore, time-space distribution of granular temperature which corresponds to the random kinetic energy shows that...

We present results from computational experiments of one-dimensional inhomogeneous granular column. With characteristic properties lying between those of liquids and solids, this class of material consists of assemblies of solid particles which interact via mechanical forces contact and friction and are maintained together by a gravitational field. The system is composed of a vertical column of...

The discharge of granular material from a hopper subject to vertical sinusoidal oscillations was investigated using experiments and discrete element computer simulations. With the hopper exit closed, side-wall convection cells are observed, oriented such that particles move up along the inclined walls of the hopper and down at the center line. The convection cells are a result of the granular b...

Passive vibration isolators are desired to have both high static stiffness to support large static load and low local stiffness to reduce the displacement transmissibility at frequencies greater than resonance. Utilization of a vertical buckled beam as a spring component is one way to realize such a stiffness characteristic since it exhibits a smaller ratio of local stiffness to static stiffnes...

Trotting and hopping animals use muscles, tendons and ligaments to store and return elastic energy as they bounce along the ground. We examine how the musculoskeletal spring system operates at different speeds and in animals of different sizes. We model trotting and hopping as a simple spring-mass system which consists of a leg spring and a mass. We find that the stiffness of the leg spring (k(...