Measurement of the energy dissipated in the hand and arm whilst using vibratory tools

Abstract Acceleration levels during hand-held grinding have been measured. By controlling the input to a vibration shaker the same acceleration levels were introduced into a specially designed handle gripped by a human hand. From measurements of force, acceleration and phase the power dissipated in the hand was calculated in third-octave bands. Approximate agreement was achieved with power dissipation estimates obtained from the acceleration alone by assuming the hand-arm system to be a linear, single degree of freedom system. The power dissipated is proposed as an important parameter affecting vibration-induced white finger.