RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SOIL MOVEMENT AND POWER CONSUMPTION IN A FURROW-OPENING ROTARY BLADE

Abstract

Small, handheld furrow openers using rotary blades usually have limited power, making it necessary to minimise their operating power consumption, which mainly occurs with the soil throwing and movement of rotary blades. To this end, it is necessary to investigate the power consumption of such tillage implements, particularly the relationship between their power consumption and operating conditions based on soil movement patterns. In this study, we performed a field test of a furrow-opening rotary blade using round, physical tracers to monitor soil movement. The total power consumption of the rotary blade was positively related to the operating depth of the blade but was not related to the soil movement distance. The total power consumption peaked at 6.677 kW at a forward speed of 0.3 m/s, which was negatively related to the forward speed, but positively related to the soil movement distance. At a blade rotational speed of 340 rpm, the total power consumption peaked at 4.385 kW and was positively related to the blade rotational speed and soil movement distance. Therefore, it was concluded that by decreasing the rotary blade rotational speed and operating depth and increasing the forward speed, the power consumption of the unit working length can be reduced.