Isolating Efficiency of Soil Compactor’s Seat Suspension Using Optimal Negative Stiffness Structure under Various Deformable Terrains

The optimal negative stiffness structures and the hydraulic mounts used to replace the driver’s seat traditional suspension system and cab’s traditional rubber mounts of the soil compactors are proposed to enhance the driver’s ride quality and control the cab shaking. A nonlinear dynamic model with 7 degrees of freedom of the vehicle is established to analyze the ride quality under various operating conditions of the vehicle moving and working on off-road terrains. The root mean square values of the driver’s seat displacement, driver’s seat acceleration, and cab pitch’s acceleration are chosen as the objective functions. The investigation results show that both the optimal negative stiffness structures and the hydraulic mounts used on the driver’s seat suspension and cab isolation system greatly improve the driver’s ride quality and control the cab shaking under all the different operating conditions of the vehicle. Particularly, all the root mean square values of the driver’s seat displacement, driver’s seat acceleration, and cab pitch’s acceleration are strongly decreased by 36.3%, 83.3%, and 48.7% under the vehicle moving condition; and 42.9%, 74.1%, and 34.8% under the vehicle working condition in comparison with the driver’s seat traditional suspension system and cab’s traditional rubber mounts, respectively. Therefore, the study results can add to the existing body of knowledge on soil compactors and provide an important reference for the application of the optimal negative stiffness structures on the seat suspension system of other vehicles to further improve the driver’s ride quality.