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EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATIONS OF 23
ACCELERATIONS AND VIBRATIONS ON VEHICLES AND BOATS

EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATIONS OF ACCELERATIONS AND
VIBRATIONS ON VEHICLES AND BOATS

Mehmet S. MERDİVENCİ, A. Gültekin AVCI and Barış BARLAS
Istanbul Technical University, Faculty of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering

ABSTRACT

The first objective of this study is to measure the hydrodynamic accelerations of Istanbul AFAD’s
inflatable boats. They use these boats for life saving purposes at Black Sea coasts and beaches of Istanbul.
These types of boats running at high speed in rough seas experience six degrees of freedom (heave, surge,
sway, yaw, roll and pitch) which is highly complex and dangerous. The reasons of the accelerations and
pressures on the boat are, the wave impact, dead rise angle of the boat, running trim, displacement, speed
of the boat and the incident wave heights. All the combination of the parameters make the hydrodynamic
problem very complicated. An inertial measurement unit (IMU), was used to measure the accelerations of
the boat cruising at rough seas. The second objective is to examine the quality of roads in ITU Ayazaga
campus with a car and an ambulance all the while identifying the environmental factors affecting
individual susceptibility to motion sickness during the road transport. The second experiment was
designed to analyze the quality of roads in Istanbul Technical University Ayazaga Campus while cruising
with a car in a convenient speed and measure the accelerations on the stretcher for a sick person during
the cruise of ambulance in the event of an emergency case.

Key Words: Vibration Dose Value; IMU Device; Rigid Inflatable Boats; Hydrodynamic Accelerations.

1. Introduction

The mission of the Istanbul AFAD is to ensure the safety of life within its area. These inflatable
boats have an important role on this mission. Our study was to measure the dynamic
accelerations of these boats at high speed in rough sea conditions. In any urgent case, level of
dynamic acceleration is very significant point on motion sicknesses especially while carrying
injured person on board to the coast. During this journey comfort of injured person is so
important and preventing from any possible motion sickness can save life. Our main object was
to measure this hydrodynamic acceleration and at the end to suggest a better design for
decreasing it. The second objective of this research was to identify environmental factors
affecting individual susceptibility to motion sickness during the road transport.

There are numerous works in the literature investigating the accelerations on land vehicles.
Nowadays, the dynamic accelerations of water crafts can also be investigated. Blood et al. [1]
measured whole-body vibration exposures in front-end loader operators, and evaluated the
effects of traction chains and work tasks on their whole-body vibration exposures.

Sayı 3, 2015 GiDB|DERGi