The horizontal apparent mass of the standing human body

Abstract The driving-point dynamic responses of standing people (e.g. their mechanical impedance or apparent mass) influence their dynamic interactions with structures on which they are supported. The apparent mass of the standing body has been reported previously for vertical excitation but not for lateral or fore-and-aft excitation. Twelve standing male subjects were exposed to fore-and-aft and lateral random vibration over the frequency range 0.1–5.0 Hz for 180 s at four vibration magnitudes: 0.016, 0.0315, 0.063, and 0.125 m s−2 rms. With lateral excitation at 0.063 m s−2 rms, subjects also stood with three separations of the feet. The dynamic forces measured at the driving-point in each of the three translational axes (i.e. fore-and-aft, lateral and vertical) showed components not linearly related to the input vibration, and not seen in previous studies with standing subjects exposed to vertical vibration or seated subjects exposed to vertical or horizontal vibration. A principal peak in the lateral apparent mass around 0.5 Hz tended to decrease in both frequency and magnitude with increasing magnitude of vibration and increase with increasing separation of the feet. The fore-and-aft apparent mass appeared to peak at a frequency lower than the lowest frequency used in the study.