An instrumented chisel for the study of soil-tillage dynamics

Abstract

An instrumented soil chisel for the study of the dynamic relationship between a tillage tool and the soil was developed. Field experiments were conducted at 2 forward speed and 2 operating depths in 2 soil conditions in a Yolo loam soil. A theoretical model which utilized a penality function technique was developed to analyze the experimental data. The results indicate that the device can be successfully used to predict the soil cutting-force distributMoreover, it was found that the force distribution over the tillage depth w Moreover, it was found that the force distribution over the tillage depth was linear at the shallow depth in both tilled and untilled soils. However, the force distribution was nonlinear at the higher depth of operation in the untilled soil. In addition, the device was also used in the study of soil-fracture mechanics. It was found that the soil fracture was a very complex process consisting of 2 or 3 dominant soil-fracture frequencies. The fracture frequencies depend on soil condition along with operating speed and depth.