DEVELOPMENT OF INDOOR SOIL BIN INSTRUMENTATION SYSTEM FOR EVALUATION OF DRAUGHT AND SOIL DISTURBANCES OF TILLAGE TOOLS

Abstract

There is urgent need to develop more sensitive instrumentation for capturing draught force data in soil bin experimentation. Hither to, a spring force dynamometer has been used in our previous studies and we had felt we needed more sensitive and accurate instrumentation. In this study an instrumentation consisting of data logger, voltage amplifier, and a load cell were designed, assembled, calibrated and interfaced with laptop for capturing draught force data of tillage tools in indoor soil bin experimentation. Draught requirements of tillage tools were investigated under various tillage parameters; Soil parameter (moisture content), tools parameter (tool type and rake angle), operational parameters (speed and depth). The type of soil used for the experimentation was loamy sand. Two rake angles (45o and 90o) and two soil conditions (dry and wet) were used for evaluating the draught of the tillage tools (sweeps).The results showed that draught force increased with increase in tools rake angle and increase in soil moisture content. Tools with flat profile surface had greater draught than those with ridged profile surface. Maximum draught of tools were 70N (T1) under wet condition and 45o tools rake angle, 95N (SF10) under wet condition and 90o tools rake angle, 95N (SF20) under wet condition and 45o tools rake angle, and 90N (SR20) under wet condition and 45o tools rake angle, Soil disturbance parameters also were higher under wet soil condition for both rake angles. Soil disturbance parameters except the ridge to ridge distance and maximum width of soil throw showed higher values for tools rake angle of 90o. The trend was the same under moisture conditions. The results therefore showed that the analog way of soil measurement can be made digitalized .the result also shows that, Draught increased with increase in tools rake angle and soil moisture content. Tools with high profile had lower draft requirement than plane surface tools.