Procedure and layout for the development of a fatigue test on an agricultural implement by a four poster test bench

The increasing demand in agricultural vehicles’ power requirements, payloads and driving speeds increases issues related to tractors and farm implements exposure to solicitations. One of the main factors to be taken into account for fatigue test developing on agricultural machines is the heterogeneity of the environment and activity in which the tractor operates. In particular, for contractors the use in transport conditions both on terrain and road becomes important. As far as transport is concerned. factors mainly affecting solicitations on carried implement are soil profile roughness, tractor settings and forward speed. In this paper, CRA-ING laboratory of Treviglio, Italy, together with Frandent Group s.r.l. (Osasco, Italy), analyse the possibility of creating a solicitation profile by means of one four poster test bench for fatigue test on a carried implement simulating transport conditions. Accelerations at the hubs of the tractor were acquired during transport on terrain and reproduced with one electro-hydraulic four posters test bench on one dummy of a tractor developed for carrying the implement. Artificial bumps were mathematically created and introduced in the time history to simulate squares solicitations. Twelve hours of test were carried out. This experience confirmed the possibility of carrying out laboratory fatigue test on agricultural implements by reproducing specific field conditions solicitations with four poster test bench.