Hand Transmitted Vibration Measurement Using Experimentally Simulated Hand-Arm Rig

摘要

Hand transmitted vibration (HTV) is one of the most common hazards faced by workers in the construction industry. A major source of HTV is hand held percussion tools, such as pneumatically driven chipping hammers and rock drills. This paper presents a new approach to measuring the vibration from these tools using an experimentally simulated hand-arm rig to which the tools are attached. The simulated rig has been designed to have similar dynamic characteristics to that of a human hand-arm system. This approach addresses the issue of repeatability as HTV measurements suffer from variability between cases and from user to user. In this paper the performance and repeatability of the tool response for the simulated rig is compared to the performance and repeatability of the tool response for three human subjects over a range of preloads. The measured accelerations of the tool for the simulated rig are shown to be representative of the measured accelerations of the tool for the human subjects with superior repeatability.