Dynamic behaviour of a battery pack for agricultural applications

Abstract Fight and contrast against climate change and global warming can be considered the most important challenge for the next decades. One of the most involved sectors is the one related to the carriage of passengers and goods, and, recently, also the work vehicles too. The agricultural machines and tractors are no exception to this. Indeed, agricultural industry is the second contributor in terms of pollutant emissions. So, research about agricultural machinery is focusing itself about the development of more sustainable propulsion systems such as hybrid or full-electric solutions. One of the most important components of a hybrid or full electric vehicle is the battery pack. The lack of adequate vibration isolation is the main cause of battery pack failure during operation. In the field of the agricultural vehicles, since the maximum speed is quite low and the weight of the various subsystems are high, combined with heavy working cycles, the dynamic analysis of the battery pack focuses on its low frequency behaviour. In this context, this paper focuses the attention on the dynamic behaviour of a battery pack, thought for a plug-in hybrid electric orchard tractor, through simulations obtained taking advantage of FEM and multibody software. In particular, it will be illustrated the dynamic behaviour of the battery pack while the tractor is moving on a bumpy road and when the tractor chassis is subjected to an impulsive load.