Showing 2 results for Tractive Efficiency
M. Loghavi, A. Mollasadeghi,
Volume 6, Issue 2 (7-2002)
Abstract
In this study tractive efficiency (TE) of MF285 and U650 tractors during moldboard plowing were evaluated and compared. Field experiments were conducted at the Experimental Station, College of Agriculture, Shiraz University, using a randomized complete block design with a 3*3 factorial. The soil was sandy clay loam with an average moisture content of 18% b.d. from zero to 30 cm depth. Test treatments were combinations of three tractor types or conditions (U650, MF285 liquid ballasted and MF285 with no liquid or weight ballast) and three levels of plowing depth (10-15 cm, 15-20 cm and 20-25 cm). Plowing speed was kept constant at about 4 km/h throughout the experiment. The measured or calculated parameters included: tractor drawbar pull and rolling resistance, drive wheel slip and tractor tractive efficiency. Statistical analysis of the test results showed that the primary difference between the tractor types or conditions was in their wheel slip, such that the average wheel slip of U650 was lowest (12.6%) while that of unballasted MF285 was highest (27%) and was reduced to 17.7% with liquid ballasting. Also, while growth of unballasted MF285 wheel slip with increasing plowing depth was drastically high (11% to 48%), that of U650 was quite moderate (9.7% to 16.5%). Analysis of the calculated values of TE showed that there was no significant changes in the TE of U650 with increasing plowing depth and that with an average of 73.8%, it had a desirable performance. The TE of unballasted MF285 that was over 75% at shallow plowing, dropped to 46% with increasing plowing depth, while water ballasting improved the decreasing trend of TE with plowing depth and raised its minimum value to about 63%. The overall results of this study showed that unballasted MF285 tractors had desirable TE only at shallow plowing and that for medium and deep plowing, U650 or water ballasted MF285 tractors should be used.
A. R. Soltani Ghalehjoghi, M. Loghavi,
Volume 11, Issue 40 (7-2007)
Abstract
Tractive efficiency and fuel consumption of Massey Ferguson (MF399) and John Deere (JD 4230) tractors during plowing with moldboard plow were evaluated and compared. The tests were conducted at the Experimental Station, College of Agriculture, Shiraz University, in a field with sandy clay soil at average moisture content of 18% d. b. from zero to 30 cm depth. A randomized complete block design with a 4 3 factorial was used in three replications. The treatments consisted of two types of tractors, MF399 and JD 4230, each at two levels of axle load (standard and liquid ballasted) and three levels of plowing depth, shallow (15-20 cm), medium (20-25 cm) and deep (25-30 cm) using a semi-mounted 4-bottom moldboard plow. In all treatments, the tractor engine speed was set at rated rpm (2000 and 2200 for MF399 and JD 4230, respectively) and forward speed was kept constant at about 4.5±5 km/hr. The measured and calculated parameters included: drawbar pull, rolling resistance, wheel slip, tractive efficiency and fuel consumption. The results indicated that tractive efficiency of MF 399 in deep plowing increased from 36.5% to 53% with ballasting the drive wheels, even though the improved traction was not comparable to that of JD 4230 (64%) at the same plowing depth. However, at ballasted condition it is comparable to JD 4230 at shallow and medium depth plowing due to its lower fuel consumption. Using ballasted JD 4230 for shallow depth plowing is not economically justified due to the excessive fuel consumption and may cause soil compaction due to the lower than optimum wheel slippage. Generally, using MF399 is recommended for lower draft and JD 4230 for higher draft tillage operations. Otherwise, MF399 will encounter severe reduction in tractive efficiency and excessive increase in fuel consumption and JD 4230 will cause soil compaction.
