Review on Seat Suspension System Technology Development

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The article is a review in the field of solutions used in vibration isolation of the seat, but also proposes concrete solutions in this area. An interesting vibroisolation system based on MR rotary dampers is presented. It is a pity that there are no results from vibration tests in the article.

Author Response

The experimental results related to the MR rotary dampers are included in the paper. The experimental results, as shown in Figure 9, verified that the MR seat suspension system case can effectively reduce the transmissibility and performs the best over a large frequency range.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

The article is a state-of-art review of seat suspension system technology. An article like this is very much needed as the seat suspension technology has flourished and the article may serve as an entry point to anyone who wishes to study the topic. The reviewer has the following comments:

However, it is generally observed that language requirements are higher in review papers than those in a research article. The manuscript may not have been written with the best language skill. Professional English editing is strongly suggested in the revised version. Take for example the first sentence in Abstract, "This literature review will focus..... vehicle drivers". The sentence may be grammatically correct but it is too long and does not attract readers to continue reading.

There are several typo mistakes, e.g. line #27 with a small letter "p"., line #35 with a capital "V". This gives an impression that the manuscript has not been proof-read thoroughly.

The quality of figures is inconsistent. e.g. Fig 3 us a very rough sketch while Fig 4  although it shows a very simple SDOF system, the figure is "decorated" with shadows. In fact, Fig 2-4 there is no need to copy the figures from literature. The authors may produces their own figures very easily and quickly. 

It is very surprising that this article does not contain equation. Readers will then required to refer to the original article to try to understand the underlying theories or governing equations. It just defeat the original meaning of a review article.  It is strongly suggested that the most fundamental equations will need to be presented in this manuscript.

Please check reference style. e.g. line #329 the first names of authors are given as well. Please make sure the style is consistent with this journal's requirements. Again this is particularly important for a review article. 

 The article focuses on mechanisms of different seat suspension system, but there is no description of various control methods (including review of control algorithms)  that have been implemented.

Author Response

Report 2:

1-     The manuscript may not have been written with the best language skill. Professional English editing is strongly suggested in the revised version. Take for example the first sentence in Abstract, "This literature review will focus.... vehicle drivers". The sentence may be grammatically correct but it is too long and does not attract readers to continue reading. The main text of the paper reviewed several times and we have tried to write with the best language. During paraphrasing the manuscript, many typo mistakes have been corrected and some sentences have been revised according to your suggestion.

2-     The quality of figures is inconsistent. e.g. Fig 3 us a very rough sketch while Fig 4 although it shows a very simple SDOF system, the figure is "decorated" with shadows. In fact, Fig 2-4 there is no need to copy the figures from literature. The authors may produce their own figures very easily and quickly. We have tried to improve the quality of pictures. Figure 3 is removed out and we have revised Figure 2. Figure 4 of the simple 1-DOF system has been drawn by ourselves. The simple figures have been redrawn and are included in the paper.

3-     It is very surprising that this article does not contain equation. Readers will then require to refer to the original article to try to understand the underlying theories or governing equations. It just defeats the original meaning of a review article. It is strongly suggested that the most fundamental equations will need to be presented in this manuscript. About relations and equation, it worth to note that there are many equations related to every system such as Human sensitivity transfer function, passive, semi active and active systems. All of the mentioned systems have their equations. For example, for a passive method as the simplest method, the system equations will have to be given for un-damped system, underdamped system, critically damped system, and Overdamped system. If all of the relations are given, the paper would be very long and poorly organized. The nature of a review paper will be lost. So we decided not to include the equations and we have included the exact references. Readers can find the mathematical fundamental of each system in the references.

4-     Please check reference style. e.g. line #329 the first names of authors are given as well. Please make sure the style is consistent with this journal's requirements. Again this is particularly important for a review article. The reference style has been checked and input references have been arranged by Endnote.

The article focuses on mechanisms of different seat suspension system, but there is no description of various control methods (including review of control algorithms) that have been implemented. This paper reviews various seat suspension systems. The main objective is to present the state of the art methods. We will present about control systems in future

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

General:

Please also mention other comfort standards such as BS-6841.

Please make a careful English editing.

Specific Comments:

line-34: "The vibration felt in a typical earth-moving machine vehicle usually happens at frequencies from 0 to 20 Hz." Authors should provide a reference for this claim?

line-37: "Vibration" why firs E is captial?

line-38: "Eigenfrequencies" why first E is captial? Also befroe that word "and" seems necessary.

line-43: Pick either "levels have influence on the .." or "levels influence the .."

line-44: revise "there is needs less suspension travel displacement"

line-50: please make the meaning clear: "Seats present high research attention as they join the driver with the whole vehicle"

line-52: please briefly explain the difference between passive, active and semi-active systems.

line-62: What is "small extra cost". Please make clear how you decide a cost is small or revise the sentence.

line-67: In ISO-2631 "human filter function" is referred to as "frequency weight". I suggest to use the conventional term as stated in ISO-2631.

line-79: Revise "The vibration frequency affects the on the driver's health and the rides comfort fully dependant on it"

line-87: Why do you need to state "on the earth".  Maybe you meant to say land vehicles? Alterntively in the beginning you can state that your work only considereds vehicles operate on land and drop the word in the remaining manuscript.

line-87: Revise "During operation of any vehicle on the earth, the severe vibration generated by bumpy roads and the operation of the machineries and it creats a load which is transferred to the seat; thus, the operators regularly feels Whole Body Vibration"

line-88: typo in "creats"

line-98: These methods are recently compared for rotorcraft applications in a fully coupled vehicle-seat-occupant form. Please consider citing:  
A. Tamer, A. Zanoni, V.Muscarello, P. Masarati, G.Quaranta ”Biodynamic Modeling Techniques for Rotorcraft Comfort Evaluation”, Aerotecnica Missili & Spazio, doi :10.1007/s42496-019-00014-5

line-101: "In order to modelling" should be "In order to model"

line-106 What do you mean by "real-time classification"? Also, consider dividing this paragraph.

line-112 You state "because these vibrations may come from various directions rather than just from vertical and fore-and-aft motions". But in line-84 it is written :the isolation of the vertical vibration, which is confirmed to have the greatest vibration
amplitude and affects drivers’ comfort in vehicles, is recognised in designing seat suspension". How do you reconcile the two statements.

line-114: What do you mean by "commercial"?

line-114: "A driver’s biodynamic responses to vehicle vibration should be focused when designing seating systems." There is no reason why the passenger comfort can be neglected over the driver. Consider VIP tranportation, for example.

line-116 In the following,as fast method of coupling vehicle and human biodynamic models are included: A. Tamer, A. Zanoni, V.Muscarello, P. Masarati, G.Quaranta ”Biodynamic Modeling Techniques for Rotorcraft Comfort Evaluation”, Aerotecnica Missili & Spazio, doi :10.1007/s42496-019-00014-5"

line-129: Why do you use subscript "3" ?

line-137: Which sensitive frequencies?

line-142: "The simple vehicle seat form contains an isolation system, a seat frame, and a human body" Please revise, a vehicle seat form does not include a human body.

Figure-3: Maybe you can improve this figure. It looks so "microsoft paint"

line- 181: Following sentence is repeated before and the reason why this pepaer is written. So repeating it not very necessary. "This main purpose of augmenting the vibro-isolation characteristics of seat suspension is to gain better health condition of the driver while operating any types of the vehicle.

line-187 :The sentence starting with "The main objective..." is very long and not easy to understand.

line-192: What do you mean "positive definite stiffness"? It makes sense for stiffness matrix but not stiffness itself.

line-195: You can add Sarib for helicopter application of semi-active systems. See references:
P. Hege, G. Genoux, The SARIB vibration absorber, in: 9th European Rotorcraft and Powered Lift Aircraft Forum.
Julien Guitton Helicopter vibrations: a major comfort improvement through seat SARIB implementation in: 44th European Rotorcraft Forum

line-202: "less power consumption" with respect to what?

line-205: maybe applied instead of "affected"

line-207: What is "(ms)". Also revise the sentence starting with: "The advantages of ...:

line-213: "Henri P Gavin and Cenk Alhan" Do you need to write given names? Also typo in "seies"

line-305: "revise the sentence starting with: "

line-324: Yo do not have to mention the software name.

line-329: paragraph is centered.

line-386: "able" should be "is able"

line-401: "evaluation of" should be evaluate

line-416: Please check: "to effect by vertical vibration"

line-460: Revise: "It worth to note that for using the rotary motor is possible without modifying the primary structure of the seat suspension"

line-501: Please improve the table format and make it more appealing to the eye.

Author Response

Report 3:

1-     line-34: "The vibration felt in a typical earth-moving machine vehicle usually happens at frequencies from 0 to 20 Hz". The reference has been added to the sentence. It was written according to the International Organization for Standardization investigation in Geneva 2000.

2-     All of the typo mistakes which mentioned by you have been modified and corrected. All of your mentioned sentences have been revised and were marked in the red text.

3-     line-52: please briefly explain the difference between passive, active and semi-active systems. The explanation has been added.

4-     line-62: What is "small extra cost". Applying sensors and actuator is very costly and complex, but semi-active control systems by utilizing controllable dampers is cheaper and easier to implement and it doesn’t need external power.

5-     line-67: In ISO-2631 "human filter function". Agreed. Revised as per your suggestion.

6-     line-98: These methods are recently compared for rotorcraft applications in a fully coupled vehicle-seat-occupant form. Agreed. The reference has been added.

7-     line-106 What do you mean by "real-time classification"? To evaluate the driver’s models in a new environment, there is a need for the model to be adaptive in real time, so that the supporting vehicle systems can react to the changes in the drivers, their driving style, moods and skills. This is the definition of the real time classification.

8-     line-112 You state "because these vibrations may come from various directions rather than just from vertical and fore-and-aft motions". But in line-84 it is written: the isolation of the vertical vibration, which is confirmed to have the greatest vibration amplitude and affects drivers’ comfort in vehicles, is recognized in designing seat suspension". How do you reconcile the two statements? As we mentioned in line 84: Vertical vibration has the largest effect on the driver’s body which may cause some problems for the drivers. It doesn’t mean that there is no vibration in other directions, it was a comparison to show which direction has the greatest vibration amplitude. The transmitted vibration may come from various directions but sometimes their effects are small and neglectable in comparison with other directions. For example, vibration levels in the Yaw direction are smaller than the vibration levels in the directions of Heave and Roll.

9-     line-114: What do you mean by "commercial"? I mean commercial vehicles such as buses and trucks. Since the drivers have to sit in these vehicles and drive for many hours, so the vibrations have the most harmful effects on these drivers.

10-  line-114: "A driver’s biodynamic responses to vehicle vibration should be focused when designing seating systems." There is no reason why the passenger comfort can be neglected over the driver. Consider VIP transportation, for example. We completely agree that passenger comfort is one of the main parameters in transportation vehicles especially in VIP transportation. But the drivers of these vehicles are exposed to the severe vibration conditions for a long time so it is very important to design a seat suspension system to minimize the side effects of vibrations.

11-  line-129: Why do you use subscript "3”? Subscript ‘’3’’ shows heave vibration. The vibration in Z direction.

12-  line-137: Which sensitive frequencies? As explained in the previous sections of the paper, the low frequency vibration around 4 to 20 HZ has the most destructive effect on human body.

13-  line-142: "The simple vehicle seat form contains an isolation system, a seat frame, and a human body" Please revise, a vehicle seat form does not include a human body. The figure has been modified as per your suggestion.

14-   line- 181: Following sentence is repeated before and the reason why this paper is written. So repeating it not very necessary. The sentences have been revised.

15-  line-192: What do you mean "positive definite stiffness"? It has been revised and replaced by stiffness matrix.

16-  line-202: "less power consumption" with respect to what? It has been revised that with respect to active control systems. 

17-  line-213: "Henri P Gavin and Cenk Alhan" Do you need to write given names? The style of references has been modified and all of the references have been arranged by Endnote.

18-  line-501: Please improve the table format and make it more appealing to the eye. The table has been modified.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

Some problematic English has been corrected and recommended to accept for publication. 

Author Response

Some problematic English has been corrected.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

Some more typos to be corrected:

line-53: there is an extra "they"
line-45: either use influence as a word, therefore omit the word "on". Or use "have influence on"
line-63: Correct "..."

line-75: typo "fo"
line-93: this sentence needs verb before the word "dependent"  
line-102: "creats" should be creates.
line-148: z has a subscript z.

line-284: Revise the sentence "According to the experimental results, as given in Fig.9, proved"  

Author Response

Q1: line-53: there is an extra "they"

A1: an extra "they" has been removed.

Q2:line-45: either use influence as a word, therefore omit the word "on".

Or use "have influence on"

A2: “has influence on” has been used.

Q3: line-63: Correct "..."

A3: "..." has been removed.

 

A4: line-75: typo "fo"

Q4: "fo" has been changed to "for"

Q5: line-93: this sentence needs verb before the word "dependent"

A5: “”is partially dependent has been changed to “partially depends”

Q6: line-102: "creats" should be creates.

A6: "creats" has been changed to "creates"

 

Q7: line-148: z has a subscript z.

A7: The subscript z has been corrected

 

Q8: line-284: Revise the sentence "According to the experimental results, as

given in Fig.9, proved"

A8: The sentence has been changed to “The experimental results, as given in Fig.9, proved…”.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx