Predicting the Performance of Tractor Rollbars : Experimental and Simlulation Results

ISBN-13: 9783639117424 / Angielski / Miękka / 2009 / 148 str.

James Harris

Opis

Tractor overturns are the single leading cause of agricultural fatalities in the United States. Effective engineering controls to prevent these deaths are available in the form of rollover protective structures (ROPS) and seatbelts. Half of all tractors in the USA are without ROPS. Cost-effective ROPS (CROPS) have been developed to lower the cost of retro-fitting a tractor with ROPS. Experimental data demonstrates that the CROPS prototype successfully completed SAE J2194 static testing. A finite element analysis (FEA) model was developed for the prototype based upon experimental data. Probabilistic design techniques were utilized to evaluate the effect of expected variation in CROPS properties on standard testing performance. Scenarios were predicted where the prototype would fail SAE J2194 static testing.However, no scenarios were predicted where the prototype failed OSHA 1928.52 static testing.

O autorze

Dr. Harris is currently a Research Safety Engineer with the
United States National Institute for Occupational Safety and
Health (NIOSH). He has a Ph.D. in Occupational Safety and Health
as well as BS and MS degrees in Mechanical Engineering from West
Virginia University. His research areas include agricultural
safety and machine safety.