The effect of posture and vibration magnitude on the vertical vibration transmissibility of tractor suspension system

Abstract

The efficiency of suspension seat can be influenced by several factors such as the input vibration, the dynamic characteristics of the seat and the dynamic characteristics of the human body. The objective of this paper is to study the effect of sitting postures and vibration magnitude on the vibration transmissibility of a suspension system of an agricultural tractor seat. Eleven (11) healthy male subjects participated in the study. All subjects were asked to sit on the suspension system. Four (4) different sitting postures were investigated – i) “relax”, ii) “slouch”, iii) “tense”, and iv) “with backrest support”. All subjects were exposed to random vertical vibration in the range of 1–20 Hz, at three vibration magnitudes - 0.5, 1.0 and 2.0 m/s2 r.m.s for 60 s. The results showed that there were three pronounced peaks in the seat transmissibility, with the primary resonance was found at 1.75–2.5 Hz for every sitting postures. The “backrest” condition had the highest transmissibility resonance (1.46), while the “slouch” posture had the highest Seat Effective Amplitude Transmissibility (SEAT) values (64.7%). Changes in vibration magnitude for “relax” posture from 0.5 to 2.0 m/s2 r.m.s resulted in greater reduction in the primary resonance frequency of seat transmissibility. The SEAT values decreased with increased vibration magnitude. It can be suggested that variations in posture and vibration magnitude affected the vibration transmission through the suspension system, indicating the non-linear effect on the interaction between the human body and the suspension system.Relevance to industry: Investigating the posture adopted during agricultural activities, and the effects of various magnitudes of vibration on the suspension system's performance are beneficial to the industry. The findings regarding their influence on the human body may be used to optimize the suspension system's performance.