Analytical and Experimental Draft Force Evaluation of Plastic Coated Chisel Tines

Improving the efficiency of all agricultural operations has always been important for farmers and engineers. It is well known that the force required for cutting a soil using narrow blades is a function of soil and environmental physical properties, tool shape geometry and the tool’s surface characteristics like soil-tool adhesion and friction. Soil tool adhesion can reduce ploughing efficiency and quality. It may also halt the movement of tillage machines in more severe conditions. Adhesion can also disable some machine abilities, which can result in a significant reduction of machine performance. Adhesion of the soil to seed-bed preparation tools like furrowers can significantly affect the germination rate. Reducing soil tool adhesion of furrowers can reduce draft force and improve ploughing efficiency. Many researchers have worked on methods of reducing draft force by modifying the surface material and/or surface texture of the plough tools. A good prediction on draft force of a tool before producing it has always been important for farmers and engineers. There are some models for predicting the draft force of narrow blades in soil. McKyes-Ali’s model is widely used because of its accuracy and simplicity. Ultra-high molecular weight polythene (UHMW-PE) is a polymer with ultra-high weight and long molecular chains and is well known for its outstanding physical and chemical properties and self-cleaning abilities, which reduce soil-tool adhesion. The aim of this study was to investigate usability of UHMW-PE coated furrower tines for draft force. Analytical and experimental investigations were carried out during the research. A comparison was conducted between the analytical and the experimental method. The results of this comparison can be used to determine reliability of the analytical model for predicting the draft force improvement caused by the surface modification on tines using different surface coatings.
Eight tines have been built. Four of them had a thick coating layer of UHMW-PE, and the other four were made of pure mild steel. Each set of the tines have been installed on a four shanked chisel plough chassis and then attached to a tractor. The draft force required for pulling the furrowers attached to the tractor has been measured by a simple load meter mechanism connecting two tractors. Draft force has been measured in two different speeds. Slip ratio of the tractor has been recorded. Each test has been repeated three times.McKyes-Ali’s proposed model for evaluating the draft force of narrow blades has been chosen to predict draft force of the traditional steel furrower tines and the surface coated ones. To drive the model, a computer program has been coded in the script environment of Matlab software. The model required some of the mechanical properties of the soil and the tool to operate. Specific gravity, cohesion and internal friction angle of the soil have been measured by routine laboratory methods. Soil-tool adhesion and friction of the mild steel and the UHMW-PE plates have been measured using the direct shear apparatus.
MkKyes-Ali’s model has predicted draft forces with an accuracy of 90%. According to the results of the driven model, applying a UHMW-PE coating layer to the surface of the tines can improve draft force by 13%. The change of tractor speed from 3.5 km h-1 to 5.5 km h-1 have no significant effect on the predicted draft forces. The model also predicted different angles of the soil failure zone for coated and uncoated tines. On the other hand, the improvement of the draft force for the UHMW-PE coated tine in the field test was about 27%. According to The results obtained from the field test, the draft force of the furrower tines had significant correlation with the speed.
The UHMW-PE coated tines required significantly less draft force to work in compare with the steel tines. McKyes-Ali’s model predicted a significant improvement (13%) in draft force for the UHMW-PE coated tines. According to the experimental results, the improvement of the draft force was about 27%, which was almost twice as predicted. Although the McKyes-Ali’s model could predict an improvement for draft force of the UHMW-PE coated tine, but the actual improvement was about twice of the prediction. According to analytical and experimental results, applying a layer of UHMW-PE plastic on furrower tines can improve the draft force significantly.