Modeling passenger comfort in turboprop aircraft using objective measures.

Background: A quantitative comfort model will aid in evaluating comfort levels of various target groups before the actual flight of an airplane. However, constructing the model is always a challenge due to the complexity of the phenomenon.

Objectives: In this paper, we present quantitative comfort models to predict the (dis)comfort of passengers flying with turboprops based on objective measures.

Decoupling absorption and radiative cooling in mid-wave infrared bolometric elements.

We present a spectrally selective, passively cooled mid-wave infrared bolometric absorber engineered to spatially and spectrally decouple infrared absorption and thermal emission. The structure leverages an antenna-coupled metal-insulator-metal resonance for mid-wave infrared normal incidence photon absorption and a long-wave infrared optical phonon absorption feature, aligned closer to peak room temperature thermal emission. The phonon-mediated resonant absorption enables a strong long-wave infrared thermal emission feature limited to grazing angles, leaving the mid-wave infrared absorption feature undisturbed.

Large Deformation Finite Element Analyses for 3D X-ray CT Scanned Microscopic Structures of Polyurethane Foams.

Polyurethane foams have unique properties that make them suitable for a wide range of applications, including cushioning and seat pads. The foam mechanical properties largely depend on both the parent material and foam cell microstructure. Uniaxial loading experiments, X-ray tomography and finite element analysis can be used to investigate the relationship between the macroscopic mechanical properties and microscopic foam structure.

Driver seat comfort for level 3-4 autonomous vehicles.

Background: Autonomous vehicles can be classified on a scale of automation from 0 to 5, where level 0 corresponds to vehicles that have no automation to level 5 where the vehicle is fully autonomous and it is not possible for the human occupant to take control. At level 2, the driver needs to retain attention as they are in control of at least some systems. Level 3-4 vehicles are capable of full control but the human occupant might be required to, or desire to, intervene in some circumstances.

PCQ: Preferred Comfort Questionnaires for product design.

Background: Selecting the most suitable questionnaire(s) in comfort research for product design is always a challenge, even for experienced researchers.

Objective: The objective of this research is to create a list of Preferred Comfort Questionnaires (PCQ) for product design to help researchers in the selection of questionnaires for comfort research.

Methods: Fifteen questionnaires that are often used in comfort research for product design were selected as candidate questionnaires.