Latorre Biel, Juan IgnacioPérez Ezcurdia, AmayaBenito Amurrio, MartaAlfaro López, José Ramón2022-04-072022-04-0720212073-439510.3390/agronomy11122594https://academica-e.unavarra.es/handle/2454/42690Disc-shaped mechanical energy absorbers (MEAs), in combination with rollover protection structures (ROPSs), may contribute to the prevention of the infringement of the safety zone and the collapse of the ROPS in case of the overturn of an agricultural tractor. An MEA can absorb a significant amount of potential energy of an overturning tractor and its deformation produces a rotation of the ROPS around the safety zone. In this research, MEAs with two different geometries have been developed. Both geometries present common features, such as disc dimensions, number of rings, and number of arms, but the distribution of the arms differs. Additionally, these MEA were manufactured in steel discs of four different thicknesses, ranging from 2 to 6 mm. The manufactured MEAs were tested in a universal testing machine, and their behavior characterized. From this data, linear models of the MEAs were developed. As a consequence, a number of characteristic parameters were selected and calculated, such as the activation load and the strain energy absorbed in a safe range of applied loads. Some patterns and trends were analyzed from the tested MEAs, which enables a better description of their behavior and the extrapolation of this behavior to other non-tested thicknesses and geometries.25 p.application/pdfeng© 2021 by the authors. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 InternationalDisc-shaped MEAMechanical energy absorberROPSStrain energyTensile testTractor overturninfo:eu-repo/semantics/articleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess