AN ANALYSIS OF VIBRATION FOR A GASOLINE-ENGINE CAR DRIVING ON THREE TYPES OF ROADS

Abstract

An analysis of vibration signals has been proposed for a personal gasoline-engine car while
driving on three types of roads including paved road, concrete road, and gravel road. The wired sensors are
placed upon three positions inside the passenger room: right-front seat surface, left-front seat surface, and rear
seat surface. The objectives of this analysis are to differentiate the corresponding vibration reflecting from
driving upon three types of roads and to differentiate the vibration at three different positions of sensors inside
the passenger room. The signal analysis technique of Fast Fourier Transform is utilized in this analysis, the
obtained spectrum is investigated to extract the dominant peaks. Thereafter, the averages of the peak values
are calculated for six different engine speeds ranging from 0-30 km/h. These averaging calculations are based
on 50 five-second-length samples of vibration signals. To achieve the first objective, the experimental results
insist that the highest peak values are mostly of the gravel road, meanwhile, the lowest peak values are of the
paved road. To accomplish the second objective, the experimental results strongly confirm the following
comparisons. In the case of paved road, the highest peak values are at the rear seat surface, meanwhile, in the
case of concrete road, the highest peak values are at the left-front seat surface. Finally, in the case of gravel
road, the highest peak values are at the rear seat surface. In conclusion, this study confirmed that the proposed
approach can be used to differentiate the signal features of all scenarios.