Improvement of vibrational comfort on agricultural vehicles by passive and semi-active cabin suspensions

Growing awareness that uncomfortable agricultural vehicles endanger the health of the operators and stricter norms concerning these health issues, make the design of an effective cabin suspension inevitable on agricultural vehicles. The comfort problem originates from the vibrations transmitted to the driver caused by the vehicle itself (engine, gearbox, ventilator, etc.) and the unevenness of the road or soil profile. This paper investigates the effect a passive and semi-active hydropneumatic cabin suspension has on the comfort of the drivers. After modeling the hydropneumatic device, the parameters in the model are optimized with respect to objective comfort parameters using a global optimization technique. The parameters in the semi-active control laws are optimized using the same approach. Improvements in comfort values up to 90% are observed.

[1]  P M Bongers,et al.  Self‐Reported Back Pain in Fork‐Lift Truck and Freight‐Container Tractor Drivers Exposed to Whole‐Body Vibration , 1992, Spine.

[2]  Carel Hulshof,et al.  Whole-body vibration and low-back pain , 1987, International archives of occupational and environmental health.

[3]  M H Pope,et al.  Vibration of the spine and low back pain. , 1992, Clinical orthopaedics and related research.

[4]  Ivo Hostens,et al.  Descriptive analysis of combine cabin vibrations and their effect on the human body , 2003 .

[5]  P. S. Els,et al.  Semi-active hydropneumatic spring and damper system , 1998 .

[6]  T E Fairley,et al.  Predicting the discomfort caused by tractor vibration. , 1995, Ergonomics.

[7]  Michael J. Griffin,et al.  Handbook of Human Vibration , 1990 .

[8]  J. De Baerdemaeker,et al.  STRUCTURAL MODIFICATION EFFECTS ON THE DYNAMIC BEHAVIOR OF AN AGRICULTURAL TRACTOR , 1998 .

[9]  C. D. Perttunen,et al.  Lipschitzian optimization without the Lipschitz constant , 1993 .

[10]  M. Bovenzi,et al.  Self‐Reported Low Back Symptoms in Urban Bus Drivers Exposed to Whole‐Body Vibration , 1992, Spine.

[11]  G. R. Allen,et al.  Ride quality and international standard ISO 2631 (Guide for the evaluation of human exposure to whole-body vibration) , 1975 .

[12]  P. Donati.  SURVEY OF TECHNICAL PREVENTATIVE MEASURES TO REDUCE WHOLE-BODY VIBRATION EFFECTS WHEN DESIGNING MOBILE MACHINERY , 2002 .

[13]  Dean Karnopp,et al.  Design Principles for Vibration Control Systems Using Semi-Active Dampers , 1990 .

[14]  Per-Anders Hansson.  Modelling and optimization of passive and adaptively controlled active cab suspensions on terrain vehicles, especially agricultural tractors , 1993 .

[15]  Carlos Canudas de Wit,et al.  A survey of models, analysis tools and compensation methods for the control of machines with friction , 1994, Autom..