Helicopter vibrations: A major comfort improvement through seat SARIB® implementation

Abstract

In response to current vibration regulations and driven by the wish to further improve the comfort on helicopter seats, Airbus Helicopters and its partner Dynalya have seized the opportunity to develop a mechanical anti-vibration device called "Seat SARIB®". This passive device is fitted at the interface between the floor and the seat and is dedicated to the vertical b/rev vibration filtering on the entire nominal frequency range of a rotorcraft and it is independent of the passenger weight. The system offers a vibration attenuation of more than 10dB while only adding only 2-3kg of weight per seat. The development, tuning and testing of this system are detailed in this article, as well as the certification methodology deployed in order for our customer to benefit from this new comfort improvement. The Seat SARIB® has been certified by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) in October 2017 for the cockpit seats of the Airbus H145 rotorcraft.