Abstract
A previous study showed that the handle vibration of a walking type cultivator can be reduced by adding a mass to the handle. This study was conducted to determine the optimum magnitude and location of the mass to be added for the same cultivator. The possible locations of added mass were determined by investigating nodal points of the handle vibration by an ODS (operational deflection shapes) test at an engine frequency of 52 Hz. The optimum location was then determined as one that moved the nodal points to the hand grip of the handle bar. To determine the optimum magnitude of the mass, the possible locations were added by a mass from 0.2 to 2.0 kg in an increment of 0.2 kg. The optimum magnitude was then determined as a mass which minimized the vibration level at the hand grip. For the case of this study, the z-axis vibration at the hand grip was reduced from $2.67m/s^2\;to\;0.88m/s^2$ resulting in a reduction of 67% and the total vibration from $4.09m/s^2\;to\;3.27m/s^2$ resulting in a 20% reduction by adding an optimum mass to the optimum location.
