Objective evaluation methods of vehicle ride comfort-A literature review

Since vehicle ride comfort represents an important criterion for the customer and the vehicle development process consumes a great deal of time and cost, increased efficiency and virtualization of the ride comfort design is strictly required. To this end, ride comfort tuning and assessment, largely being performed in a subjective manner on the test track nowadays, should successively be shifted to an objective, virtual evaluation. The goal of this study is to provide specific information from the vast body of literature regarding the subsequent steps of the correlative approach often employed to deliver an objective measure equivalent to a subjective rating. The reviewed literature demonstrates that specially adapted causal relationships are frequently created, but they potentially lack the state of generalisation required to objectively tune future generations of vehicles with sufficient accuracy. Before establishing a suitable mathematical formula, it is essential to define each ride comfort aspect in detail and with a common understanding, since they constitute the foundation for a successful objective description. Paired with the knowledge of the complexity of human discomfort perception, which constitutes another point of this review, the necessary vehicle tests can be planned appropriately. Finally, various ride comfort phenomenon-specific approaches employed in the reviewed literature are presented in order to provide the developer with a useful toolbox to objectively describe the desired ride comfort aspect.