Abstract
Tractors are widely used for agricultural activities worldwide by farmers. The cabin mount of a tractor supports the weight of the cabin and isolates vibrations from the chassis. In this study, the cabin mount-shape parameters were optimized considering its design characteristics to reduce vibration and noise inside the cabin. Additionally, vibration and noise tests were conducted to evaluate the improvement in isolation performance owing to the optimization. The nonlinear material constants of the Mooney–Rivlin hyperelastic model were obtained through tensile tests on rubber materials. A finite element model of the cabin mount was developed, and an analysis model was constructed to derive the vertical and lateral stiffness and displacement transmissibility through static and dynamic analyses using the ABAQUS program. The shape parameters influencing vertical and lateral stiffness were determined, and an objective function to minimize displacement transmissibility was defined for optimization. The vertical and lateral displacement transmission rates of the mount were successfully decreased through the optimization. The noise and vibration test results indicate that the cabin noise decreased by approximately 1–2 dB, while vibrations in the frequency range below 100 Hz were reduced by more than 3 dB in all directions. The proposed technique can help engineers and manufacturers improve driver comfort and mitigate the adverse effects of excessive noise and vibrations on their mental and physical health.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.