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The seat of a class-8 commercial vehicle in North America consists of a seat-suspension system to reduce the vibrations transmitted to the seat occupant from the cab floor. The vibration isolation provided by the suspension of the seat determines the ride comfort experienced by the occupant. Until now, the vibration isolation provided by the suspension seat was evaluated by exciting the seat on a Six-Axis shaker table with different displacement profiles. This paper presents the development of a validated Multi-Body Dynamics (MBD) model that can be used to assess the ride comfort of a given suspension seat. The model was validated using the data generated during testing of a prototyped suspension seat. The vibration transmissibility predicted by the model was compared with that of test data and it was observed that they correlated by about 80%. The development of this model will significantly reduce the amount of testing needed which can further condense the product development time.

In the heavy truck market, suspension seating has evolved through research in the areas of comfort durability, and vibration exposure analysis. These areas are under constant investigation and development for the production of a suspension seat that will accommodate a larger range of occupants more comfortably, will possess increased durability, and will provide the drivers with more control of their driving environment. Some comfort technologies under current investigation for the heavy truck market that will be discussed include electromyography (EMG), benchmarking, pressure mapping, and field evaluation. Current durability research includes field data acquisition, fatigue analysis, and accelerated simulation testing. Vibration exposure research aims to develop improved occupant isolation from vehicle and road vibration. The research conducted in these areas is leading toward improvements in the development and design of seating in the heavy truck market.