Design and Performance Assessment of a Semi-Active Suspension Model of Tractor Cabin

Cumulative effect of transmitted vibrations to the tractor driver not only leads to driver health problems, but also reduces the driver working efficiency. Tractor suspension system is one of the methods which is employed to lower the level of transmitted vibrations to the driver. In this study the design and performance assessment of a semi-active suspension model of tractor cabin was considered. Tractor full vibration model was developed first, and subsequently a semi-active ON-OFF damper model was designed. The examination of the model indicated that doubling the piston area and the volume of hydraulic accumulator air chamber, led to 39% increase and 31% reduction of the resonance frequency of transmitted vibrations to the driver, respectively. On the other hand doubling the piston area and the primary air pressure of the accumulator, affected the RMS of transmitted vibration to the driver by 77 cm s-2 reduction and 66 cm s-2 increase, respectively. Moreover, the numerical comparison of the model outputs with and without activation of semi-active cabin suspension, while the model was stimulated with the same input function, led to 43% improvement in RMS acceleration of the transmitted vibrations to the tractor seat. Therefore, the designed semi-active suspension model of cabin was able to attenuate the level of transmitted vibrations to the tractor driver.