Investigation of Wheeled Tractors Ride Comfort Using Hydraulic Semi-Active Suspension System

In this paper, an electronically controlled hydraulic semiactive system for the seat suspension of wheeled tractors is theoretically designed to improve the driver ride comfort. Using a three degrees of freedom mathematical model, the damping force controller is designed based on optimal control theory and Nelder / Mead Simplex minimization method to perform a limited state feedback information. The controller considers the damping constraint which adapts the actual damping between the prescribed limits. The model results are generated when excited by a statistically random road profile. The results are presented in time and frequency domains. The driver vertical acceleration for semi-active and conventional passive systems are compared at similar root mean square (r.m.s) value of suspension working space. The semiactive system achieved a significant improvement, 18 percent, over the passive system with no power requirement from the tractor engine.