Abstract
When operating a tractor on a pavement, its vibration is greatly affected by the lug excitation force, which is caused by the interaction between the road and agricultural tire. Therefore, it is important to understand the characteristics of the lug excitation force to elucidate the mechanism of tractor vibration. However, it is difficult to directly measure the lug excitation force during rolling motion owing to the requirements of complicated measurement methods. Therefore, no studies have determined the lug excitation force. In this study, an agricultural tire is modeled as a 3-dimensional rigid ring model, which is useful for estimating the lug excitation force. Consequently, a new technique to determine the lug excitation force is presented. The shaft displacement and shaft force during rolling motion are measured in 3-dimensions through rolling test, and the lug excitation force is determined from the test data. The characteristics of the lug excitation and shaft forces are investigated, including the correlation between these and the tire vibration characteristics. Furthermore, the transfer characteristics of the lug excitation force with respect to the shaft force are analyzed, and the effect of the tire vibration characteristics on the transfer characteristics is examined. The developed technique is very useful in reducing tractor vibration caused by the lug excitation force.
