Agricultural tractor with different mass distributions between axles

Abstract

An adjustment of the agricultural tractor is necessary to achieve energy efficiency, which can be done through the correct distribution of mass between the axles for each operating surface. This research evaluated different distributions of mass between axles in a 93 kW tractor equipped with auxiliary front-wheel drive, on two soil surfaces. The experiment was carried out in strip design, with a double factorial scheme (2 x 3), with two soil surfaces (mobilized and firm) and three mass distributions between axes (35/65%, 40/60% and 45/55%), with five repetitions, totaling 30 parcels. The slippage parameters of the front and rear wheelset, engine rotation, hourly and specific fuel consumption, force, power and yield on the drawbar, displacement speed, engine thermal efficiency, traction coefficient, rolling resistance, and yield in traction. On firm soil, the energy performance of the tractor was superior in relation to the mobilized one, which allowed greater tractor and drawbar performance with lower specific fuel consumption. The use of a 35/65% between-axle mass distribution provided maximum traction for the mechanized set, resulting from the reduction in energy expenditure generated by skating and; consequently, the maximum use of the energy made available by the mechanized set. However, the maximum conversion of energy contained in the working fuel is obtained with the 45/55% setting.

Full-Powershift Energy Behavior Tractor in Soil Tillage Operation

“…Concerning slipping (Figure 1C), there is a linear growth at the expense of the selected speed, which according to the obtained equation, the smaller slipping rate (3.2%) occurred at the speed of 5.7 km h -1 . It can be explained by the slipping index rising with the increase in power demand at higher operating speeds (Monteiro et al, 2011;Kmiecik et al, 2023). These values were lower than those established by ASABE D496.3 (2011) for firm soils, which according to Gabriel Filho et al (2010), also applies to covered surfaces.…”