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http://dx.doi.org/10.5307/JBE.2009.34.1.001

Evaluation of Environmental Comfort of Tractor Cabs  

Hwang, Ki-Young (Dept. of Biosysems and Biomaterials Science and Engineering, and Institute for Agricultural and Life Science, Seoul National University)
Kim, Kyeong-Uk (Dept. of Biosysems and Biomaterials Science and Engineering, and Institute for Agricultural and Life Sciences, Seoul National University)
Publication Information
Journal of Biosystems Engineering / v.34, no.1, 2009 , pp. 1-7 More about this Journal
Abstract
In order to evaluate environmental comfort of tractor cabs, temperature, relative humidity and noise within the cab were taken from 31 tractors during plowing and rotovating operations. The temperature and humidity were evaluated with regard to the comfort zone of KS B ISO 14269-2 and PMV of ISO 7730. The noise was evaluated with regard to the permissible sound level of OSHA for daily exposure of 8 hours. The collected data indicated that thermal environment of the cabs was out of the comfort zone, which meant tractor operators worked under uncomfortable thermal conditions. Difference in the thermal comfort by tractor power and maker, and type of works was not found. However, 25% of the studied tractors showed PMV in a range of -0.5 to +0.5, which indicated their operators worked under the comfort criteria. PMV was improved when the cab was air-conditioned. Levels of measured cab noise were lower than the permissible criteria, and 76.7% of the studied tractors had cab noise ranged from 75 to 85 dBA. There was a tendency that high powered tractors, rotovating operations and locally-made tractors had greater cab noise levels. However, their differences were insignificant.
Keywords
Thermal comfort; PMV (Predicted Mean Vote); Tractor cab; Cab noise;
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