ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the potentially harmful vibrations associated with joint degeneration. The study of human vibration covers a wide spectrum of mechanical vibration types and magnitude and their influence on the human body. Vibration is the oscillatory motion of a body relative to another body. Vibrations may be continuously periodic or random; random vibrations may be considered stationary when the running average value over a period remains reasonably constant or nonstationary when the running average level changes with time. If the link between harmful vibrations and joint pathology is to be taken seriously, then it is important to measure the vibration accurately so that sensible precautions can be taken. Treating the human body as a mechanical system for low-frequency and low-amplitude vibration, this linear lumped-parameter model works reasonably well.
