An Experimental Study on Primary Factors of the Ear Discomfort Experienced by Passengers in Tunnels
Naoki FUKUSHIMA, Hiroaki SUZUKI, Takayuki SHIMOMURA, Yoshio AKIYAMA
In Japan, speedup is progressing on the narrow-gauge lines and thereby
the ear discomfort is caused to passengers as the vehicles run in tunnels
at high speed. In this experimental report, we examine about primary factors
of the ear discomfort. We made and experiment in the field, using the limited
express diesel cars. Subjects evaluated their ear discomfort working the
selector switches. We studied the correlation between the ear discomfort
versus pressure level, and pressure level changing rate. At a glance, the
ear discomfort seemed to correlate with both parameters. From the partial
correlation in them however we found that the ear discomfort depends on
the difference between maximum and minimum of pressure variations.