Eksioglu M., Kizilaslan K., Amman S.

The study focused on vehicle vibration simulator (VVS) tests for subjective evaluation of steering wheel longitudinal vibration. Fourteen (14) subjects (8 males, 6 females) participated in the VVS experiment aplying two steering wheel grip force levels. Two equal annoyance contours were obtained for the longitudinal steering wheel vibration, one for each of the two grip force levels. In the frequency range of 10-64 Hz, the primary factor that determined the shape of the equal annoyance contour was vibration frequency. The annoyance level decreased at a rate of 6 dB per octave (for acceleration) as the frequency increased. The annoyance responses were significantly (a=0.05) different from each other at each test frequency (10, 16, 25.5, 40.5, and 64 Hz) for both contours obtained. The equal annoyance contours obtained in low and high grip force levels were not significantly different from each other at a=0.05 level for the frequency range investigated. In addition, there was no significant gender effect on the annoyance response (a=0.05). The findings of this study showed good agreement with those of previous studies.