Abstract
Low-frequency vibrations (0.5–5 Hz) that harm drivers occur in off-road vehicles. Thus, researchers have focused on finding methods to effectively isolate or control low-frequency vibrations. A novel nonlinear seat suspension structure for off-road vehicles is designed, whose static characteristics and seat-human system dynamic response are modeled and analyzed, and experiments are conducted to verify the theoretical solutions. Results show that the stiffness of this nonlinear seat suspension could achieve real zero stiffness through well-matched parameters, and precompression of the main spring could change the nonlinear seat suspension performance when a driver’s weight changes. The displacement transmissibility curve corresponds with the static characteristic curve of nonlinear suspension, where the middle part of the static characteristic curve is gentler and the resonance frequency of the displacement transmissibility curve and the isolation minimum frequency are lower. Damping should correspond with static characteristics, in which the corresponding suspension damping value should be smaller given a flatter static characteristic curve to prevent vibration isolation performance reduction.
Highlights
Off-road vehicles have been used widely in recent years
A novel nonlinear seat suspension structure for off-road vehicles is designed in this study to broaden the seat nonlinear suspension forms and explore the best performance; this structure is simple and can achieve an ideal zerostiffness isolation performance
A classic fourdegree-of-freedom (4DOF) human model is coupled with a seat model that possesses nonlinear suspension, and seathuman system dynamic characteristics are researched
Summary
Off-road vehicles have been used widely in recent years. Such vehicles are usually driven and work on gravel or rough surfaces, which cause severe vibrations. Researchers have introduced several methods, such as the active, semiactive, and nonlinear seat suspensions, to isolate low-frequency vibrations from off-road vehicles. Carrella et al studied a simple system that comprised a vertical spring acting in parallel with two oblique springs and obtained the static characteristics of a passive vibration isolator with quasi-zerostiffness characteristic [18]. Danh and Ahn studied and proposed an active pneumatic vibration isolation system using negative stiffness structures for a vehicle seat under low excitation frequencies [22]. A novel nonlinear seat suspension structure for off-road vehicles is designed in this study to broaden the seat nonlinear suspension forms and explore the best performance; this structure is simple and can achieve an ideal zerostiffness isolation performance. A classic fourdegree-of-freedom (4DOF) human model is coupled with a seat model that possesses nonlinear suspension, and seathuman system dynamic characteristics are researched. The test results show that the stiffness of this nonlinear seat suspension could achieve real zero stiffness using wellmatched parameters, and precompressing the main spring could change the nonlinear seat suspension performance when a driver’s weight changes
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