Conforto térmico de operadores de tratores agrícolas submetidos a diferentes condições de operação de preparo de solo

Abstract

The increasing food demand has made Brazilian agriculture optimize their production in the field, conducing the agricultural tractors operator to prolonged working hours exposing him to an unhealthy environment, besides causing some accidents and cause damage to the operator health, causing, in some cases, even professional death. Nevertheless there are technologies that can improve the operator working conditions as are the cowlings and air-conditioned cabins, the great majority of tractors in Brazil don’t have this device. Therefore, the operator remains submitted to adverse environmental conditions, especially in the Northeast region, in which, throughout the year, the elevated levels of solar radiation and air temperature are unfavorable for thermal comfort and well-being of agricultural tractor operators. Then, based on the economic and climatic conditions in each region, the objective of this study was to evaluate the thermal and ergonomic operator comfort in tractors with and without cowl in the activity of soil preparation, aiming to identify diagnosis in relation to thermal sensation, heat insalubrity, the physiological stress degree and to measure the skin temperature of different body parts of this person when working. The assessments were made during the Brazilian summer morning, afternoon and evening periods, using a BM-125I tractor VALTRA brand, during plowing and subsoiling operations. The Thermal sensation was calculated using the temperature and relative humidity and resulted in discomfort worked in all conditions. The unhealthiness was calculated based on the methodology of Norma Regulamentadora 15, Anexo 3, unhealthiness this which was not diagnosed by exposure to heat, as it had measured the heart rate operator for ergonomic analysis and verified that there wasn’t overload in cardiovascular physical effort demanded by operations. Finally, measured the skin average temperature of some operator’s member (face, hand, arm and leg) by making use of thermal imaging and considering the permanence of heat above the comfort temperature in all conditions and hours worked, and was noted that there was significant difference in the variation by skin temperature operator between operating conditions with and without cowl only in the schedules of midday and late afternoon.