Method of improving the soil compactor's ride quality based on the optimal negative stiffness structure

Abstract

A new driver's seat suspension designed by the negative-stiffness-structure (NSS) and cab's isolation used by the hydraulic mounts are proposed to enhance the soil compactor's ride quality. A nonlinear vehicle dynamics model that considers the interaction between the wheel/drum and deformable terrains is established to evaluate the NSS's performance. Based on the genetic algorithm, NSS's parameters are optimised to further improve ride quality. The ride quality is evaluated through the displacement and acceleration of the seat and cab in the frequency and time domains. The research results are also verified via the experiment. The results show that the root-mean-square (RMS) and power-spectral-density of the seat and cab accelerations with the optimal NSS are strongly reduced in comparison without NSS. Especially, the RMS seat's acceleration is markedly attenuated by 67.54% under the vehicle working condition. Therefore, the optimal NSS applied on off-road vehicle's seat suspension could enhance the ride quality.