WHOLE BODY AND HAND-ARM VIBRATIONS ON OFF-ROAD VEHICLE USED IN ACADEMICALS COMPETITIONS

Resumo

Off-road vehicles, baja type, are designed for locomotion on irregular terrains with several obstacles, to pull loads with effciency, furthermore, are compact and easy to operate. Such vehicles have wide use in agriculture, construction, transportation and military operations. Baja vehicle provide to pilot an exposure to high levels of mechanical vibrations. With the present work aimed to determine the whole body vibration and hand-arm vibration in the pilot using the vehicle designed by UFVbaja team. The vibrations levels incident on the pilot was measured in three different terrain conditions and different forward speeds. It was determinate the root mean square acceleration and daily vibration exposure at the seat pad and hand-arm of pilot. For whole body vibration was obtained the daily vibration dose value. The values were confronted with standards ISO 2631-1. The acceleration level, normalized to 8 hour, exceeded the warning limits for all worked conditions. To Baja vehicle operating in plowing soil, the transverse and vertical accelerations exceeded the limit level. In general, incident acceleration levels on the pilot were considered high, which reinforces the need for seats projects of suspension, steering and seat that effectively reduce the vibration transmitted to pilot body and hand-arm system.