Investigation of the use of polymer matrix composites in tractor falling object protective structures

In this research, the usability of SMC Composite materials as a falling object protective (FOPS) structure in today's tractors instead of metal materials was investigated. SMC-R25 composite material was chosen as FOPS. OECD code 10 standard was used as falling object protective test. This test was carried out with both physical and numerical methods. The physical test was carried out on the FOPS of Hattat 3000 series tractor made of SMC-R25 material. Radioss, an explicit solver, was used for the numerical method solution. For the solution algorithm, the Law 25 material card, which works in accordance with the Tsai-Wu and Chang-Chang damage criterions in the radioss, was selected. In order to determine the material limit values, tensile and compression tests were performed on 0°, 90°and 45 ° samples according to DIN EN ISO 527-4, from the FOPS production side of Hattat 3000 series tractor. When the numerical solution made in line with the obtained boundary conditions was compared with the physical test, it was observed that the solution matched. It was determined that SMC-R25 should have a min 14mm thickness to pass OECD code 10 standarts. This numerical solution was also performed on the SMC-R65 composite- S235JR (St37-2) metal material with the same geometry and it was decided that the SMC-R65 material could be an alternative to low alloy steels for FOPS structures of tractors.