Abstract
Whole-body vibration exposure is a critical factor affecting human health and comfort, particularly for individuals operating on/off-road vehicles. Prior studies have focused on male biomechanical models. This study intentions to develop a new female-specific biomechanical model to analyze and optimize biodynamic responses under vertical vibration conditions. The objective is to introduce a ten degrees-of-freedom (dofs) biomechanical model tailored for the female body, considering the average weight of human beings. The new model has compared against existing male-oriented models to evaluate its effectiveness. The female body is divided into ten key segments: head, pelvis thorax, abdomen, left upper arm, left hand, left forearm, right upper arm, right forearm, and right hand. Mechanical properties are adjusted based on female-specific mass distribution, stiffness, and damping characteristics. The Firefly Algorithm is used for parameter optimization. The biodynamic responses, including seat-to-head transmissibility, apparent mass, and driving point mechanical impedance, are evaluated and compared with previous male models. The optimized female model exhibits distinct biodynamic response characteristics due to anatomical and biomechanical differences. The goodness of fit analysis indicates improved predictive accuracy for female subjects, suggesting the necessity for gender-specific modelling in vibration analysis.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
All relevant data, simulation files, and figures supporting the findings of this study are included within the manuscript. No additional external datasets are required to reproduce the results.
References
Liang, C. C. & Chiang, C. F. A study on biodynamic models of seated human subjects exposed to vertical vibration. Int. J. Ind. Ergon. 36, 869–890 (2006).
Sekulic, D., Ivkovic, I. & Mladenovic, D. Effects of the seat cushion oscillatory parameters on vibration exposure and dynamic seat comfort in the bus. J. Appl. Eng. Sci. 15, 433–441 (2017).
Bhiwapurkar, M. K., Saran, V. H., Harsha, S. P., Goel, V. K. & Berg, M. Influence of mono-axis random vibration on reading activity. Ind. Health. 48, 675–681 (2010).
Corbridge, C. & Griffin, M. J. Effects of vertical vibration on passenger activities: writing and drinking. J. Ergon. 34, 1313–1332 (1991).
Khan, M. S. & Sundstrom, J. Effects of vibration on sedentary activities in passenger trains. J Low Freq Noise V A 26:43–55, 2007 (2007).
Bhiwapurkar, M. K., Saran, V. H. & Harsha, S. P. Quantitative evaluation of distortion in sketching under mono and dual axes whole body vibration. Ind. Health. 49, 410–420 (2011).
Bostrom, O. et al. Comparison of car seats in low speed rear-end impacts using the biorid dummy and the new neck injury criterion (NIC). Accid. Anal. Prev. 32, 321–328 (2000).
Maikala, R. V. & Bhambhani, Y. N. Functional changes in cerebral and paraspinal muscle physiology of healthy women during exposure to whole-body vibration. Accid. Anal. Prev. 40, 943–953 (2008).
Camden, M. C. et al. Prevalence of operator fatigue in winter maintenance operations. Accid. Anal. Prev. 126, 47–53 (2019).
Arslan, Y. Z. Experimental assessment of lumped-parameter human body models exposed to whole body vibration. J. Mech. Med. Biol. 15, 1550023–1550013 (2015).
Alphin, M. S., Sankaranarayanasamy, K. & Sivapirakasam, S. P. Segmental vibration transmissibility of seated occupant from lumped parameter models. J. Vib. Control. 18, 1683–1689 (2012).
Nawayseh, N. & Hamdan, S. Apparent mass of the standing human body when using a whole-body vibration training machine: effect of knee angle and input frequency. J. Bio-mech. 82, 291–298 (2019).
Zong, Z. & Lam, K. Y. Biodynamic response of shipboard sitting subject to ship shock motion. J. Bio-mech. 35, 35–43 (2002).
Allen, G. A critical look at Biomechanical modeling in relation to specifications for human tolerance of vibration and shock. AGARD Conf. Proc. 253 (paper A25-5), Paris–pp6 (1978).
Cho, Y. & Yoon, Y. S. Biomechanical model of human on seat with backrest for evaluating ride quality. Int. J. Ind. Ergon. 27, 331–345 (2001).
Wan, Y. & Schimmels, J. M. A simple model that captures the essential dynamics of a seated human exposed to whole body vibration. Adv. Bioeng. 31, 333–334 (1995).
Wagner, J. & Liu, X. An active vibration isolation system for vehicle seats. SAE Paper. 0275, 7–18 (2000).
Rajendiran, S. & Lakshmi, P. Performance analysis of fractional order terminal SMC for the half car model with random road input. J. Vib. Eng. Technol. 8, 587–597 (2019).
Bai, X. X., Xu, S. X., Cheng, W. & Qian, L. J. On 4-degree-of-freedom biodynamic models of seated occupants: Lumped-parameter modelling. J. Sound Vib. 402, 122–141 (2017).
Smith, S. D. Modeling differences in the vibration response characteristics of the human body. J. Bio-mech. 33, 1513–1516 (2000).
Zheng, G., Qiu, Y. & Griffin, M. J. An analytic model of the in-line and cross-axis apparent mass of the seated human body exposed to vertical vibration with and without a backrest. J. Sound Vib. 330, 6509–6525 (2011).
Darling, J., Hillis, A. J. & Gan, Z. Development of a biodynamic model of a seated human body exposed to low frequency Whole-body vibration. J. Vib. Eng. Technol. 3, 301–314 (2015).
Gan, Z., Hillis, A. J. & Darling, J. Biodynamic modelling of seated human subjects exposed to uncouples vertical and fore-and-aft whole-body vibration. J. Vib. Eng. Technol. 3, 301–314 (2015).
Afkar, A., Marzbanrad, J. & Amirirad, Y. Modeling and semi active vertical vibration control of a GA optimized 7DoF driver model using an MR damper in a seat suspension system. J. Vib. Eng. Technol. 3, 37–47 (2015).
Chen, C. J., Fang, C., Qu, G. Q. & He, Z. Y. Vertical vibration modelling and vibration response analysis of chinese high-speed train passengers at different locations of a high-speed train. Proc Inst Mech Eng F: Journal of Rail and Rapid Transit (2020).
Harsha, S. P., Desta, M., Prashanth, A. S. & Saran, V. H. Measurement and bio-dynamic model development of seated human subjects exposed to low frequency vibration environment. Int. J. Veh. Noise Vib. 10, 1–24 (2014).
Qassem, W. & Othman, M. O. Vibration effects on setting pregnant women-subjects of various masses. J. Bio-mech. 29, 493–501 (1996).
Guruguntla, V. & Lal, M. An improved Biomechanical model to optimize biodynamic responses under vibrating medium. J. Vib. Eng. Technol. 9, 675–685 (2021).
Guruguntla, V. & Lal, M. Development of novel biodynamic model of the seated occupants. Smart Innov. Syst. Technol. 221, 51–57 (2021).
Guruguntla, V. & Lal, M. A state-of-the-art review on Biomechanical models and biodynamic responses. Ergonomics ; 1–22. (2023).
Guruguntla, V. & Lal, M. Multi-body modelling and ride comfort analysis of a seated occupant under whole-body vibration. J. Vib. Control. 29, 3078–3095 (2022).
Guruguntla, V. & Lal, M. Development and analysis of a novel Biomechanical model for seated occupants. Proc. Institution Mech. Eng. Part. D: J. Automobile Eng. 236, 1474–1486 (2021).
Guruguntla, V. & Lal, M. Analysis of segmental vibration transmissibility of seated human. In: (eds Deepak, B. B. V. L., Parhi, D. R. K., Biswal, B. B. et al.) Applications of Computational Methods in Manufacturing and Product Design. Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore, 289–296. (2022).
Guruguntla, V. et al. Ride comfort and segmental vibration transmissibility analysis of an automobile passenger model under whole body vibration. Sci. Rep. 13, 11619 (2023).
Kumara, V., Saranb, V. H. & Guruguntla, V. Study of vibration dose value and discomfort due to whole body vibration exposure for a two wheeler drive. In Proceedings of the 1st International and 16th National Conference on Machines and Mechanisms (iNaCoMM2013) (pp. 947–952). (2013), December.
Funding
None of the authors listed in the manuscript has financial support or any personal association with organizations and people or that could inappropriately affect the manuscript content.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
V.G.: Conceptualization, methodology, formal analysis, and original draft preparation.B.A.G.Y.: Literature review, Investigation, Data curation, original draft preparation, and visualization.S.S.B.R.T.: Software, validation, and resources.G.S.P.G.: Formal analysis, review, and editing.P.V.: Data collection, review, and editing.H.P.P.: Supervision, review, editing and overall project guidance.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Additional information
Publisher’s note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
About this article
Cite this article
Guruguntla, V., Yuvaraju, B.A.G., Rao, T.S.S.B. et al. Development and optimization of a female-specific Biomechanical model for biodynamic response analysis: a comparison with male biomechanical models. Sci Rep (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-36165-2
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-36165-2
