Effect of Whole Body Vibration on Human Body Ride Comfort

Agricultural tractor operators are exposed to high intensity of vibration during working conditions which significantly affect operator's health. In this research work, FEM analysis of tractor seat has been performed to evaluate the transmissibility from seat base to seat pan for the tractor operator representing 95th percentile male population of India. It has been found that tractor seat shows maximum transmissibility between 2 to 6 Hz. This can cause motion sickness, back pain and other health related issues. To improve ride quality of tractor operator, three different spring stiffness i.e. 0.3 kg/mm, 0.55 kg/mm and 0.7 kg/mm have been considered for the minimum transmissibility. Seat suspension with stiffness of 0.55 kg/mm has maximum transmissibility of 1.47 at 3.7 Hz which has been found to be comparatively 16% less than other stiffness values considered in this study.