Hidehisa Oku

Effect of Tire Pressure to Physical Workload at Operating a Manual Wheelchair

It is often experienced that low tire pressure of the wheelchair not only increases running resistance, but also reduces parking brake performance. In this study, the required driving forces for different tire pressures were experimentally measured and evaluated. It was indicated from the result that the wheelchair with proper tire pressure could be run with less workload of wheelchair-user. Then it was also indicated that the wheelchair with a lower tire pressure needed more workload of wheelchair-user even on hard level surface.

Effect of Tire Pressure to Driving Forces at a Wheelchair

If the same effect is obtained by less driving force in a manually propelled wheelchair, necessary user’s physical and mental capability can be decreased. On the other hand, many external factors not relating with wheelchairs and internal factors related with wheelchairs affect the driving force necessary to propel manual wheelchairs appropriately. In these circumstances, the purpose of our research is to clarify the relation between the tire pressure of the driving wheel and the required driving force in manually propelled wheelchairs. For this purpose, a clinical testing to measure required driving forces in different tire pressures at a manually propelled wheelchair has been carried out. The result of the testing indicated that the required driving forces increased according to decrease of the tire pressure. This objectively revealed that appropriate tire pressure in manually propelled wheelchairs is the one of important factors to reduce driving force.