Modern Tractor Rollover Test: Instrumentation Set-up and Preliminary Experimental Results

Fatal injuries due to tractor rollover are a matter of concern all around the world. The role of the tractor in modern agriculture has changed and it seems necessary to verify the energy and the force requirements specified by the Standard tests for Rolling Over Protective Structures (ROPS). Real tractor overturn tests could provide a means for investigating the subject. This paper presents the work on the set-up of a modern narrow track tractor with the intention of real rollover testing. In particular, two different acquisition systems have been developed and installed on the tractor . The first, composed of load and displacement transducers, allows a direct measurement of the energy absorbed by the ROPS in a controlled rollover event. The second acquisition system, based on accelerometers and data acquisition unit, allows accelerometer readings in the time domain to be recorded. Data from this second system, linked to a video record of the overturning event, provides an alternative method for calculating the energy subjected to the ROPS. Tests performed in controlled cases are aimed at finalising a functional set-up of the tractor and ultimately permitting more realistic rollovers to be studied. Here focus is given to the project layout and instrumentation set-up of the tractor together with some preliminary results related to the testing of the first acquisition system.