Discussion of human resonant frequency

Abstract

Human bodies are often exposed to vertical vibrations when they are in the workplace or on vehicles. Prolonged exposure may cause undue stress and discomfort in the human body especially at its resonant frequency. By testing the response of the human body on a vibrating platform, many researchers found the human whole-body fundamental resonant frequency to be around 5 Hz. However, in recent years, an indirect method has been proposed which appears to increase the resonant frequency to approximately 10 Hz. To explain this discrepancy, experimental work was carried out in NTU. The study shows that the discrepancy lies in the vibration magnitude used in the tests. A definition of human natural frequency in terms of vibration magnitude is proposed.