Influence of Tyre Inflation Pressure and Wheel Load on the Traction Performance of a 65 kW MFWD Tractor on a Cohesive Soil

Abstract

The choice of tractor configuration is of primary importance in tillage operations for the optimisation of traction performance, i.e. for limiting slip which involves energy loss. To a great extent, this aspect affects the fuel consumption and the time required for soil tillage. Tyre inflation pressure and wheel load are both easily managed parameters which play a significant role in controlling the traction performance of a tractor. The present study aimed to investigate the influence of tyre inflation pressure and wheel load on the traction performance of a mechanical front wheel drive MFWD tractor (65 kW engine power) on an agricultural clay (C) Vertic Cambisol on the basis of results of traction tests and simulations with a semi-empirical soil-tyre interaction model adapted for MFWD vehicles. The traction tests were carried out using four tractor configurations with two tractor weights (40.8 kN and 50.2 kN) and two tyre inflation pressures (60 kPa and 160 kPa). Traction performance was considered in terms of drawbar pull, traction coefficient, tractive efficiency, power delivery efficiency and specific fuel consumption in relation to wheel slip. A decrease in tyre pressure and an increase in wheel load resulted in higher drawbar pull however, only the former produced improvements in terms of coefficient of traction, tractive efficiency, power delivery efficiency and specific fuel consumption, while the only significant benefit resulting from the latter was a reduction in specific fuel consumption at a tyre pressure of 160 kPa and a slip of under 15%.

Energy Performance in Disc Harrowing Operation in Different Gradients and Gauges

“…The obtained WS values were within those recommended by Battiato & Diserens (2014) and lower than those established by ASAE (2005), which can be explained by the higher cohesion of clay soil in low humidity conditions, resulting in higher traction force and lower rolling resistance (Damanauskas, et al, 2015) (Table 1).…”

Dependencies of the Lead of Front Driving Wheels on Different Tire Deformations for a MFWD Tractor

“…The latter was here assumed to be the tractor operating at zero drawbar pull on a smooth road. Zoz, Grisso (2003), Battiato, Diserens (2013) show that, the difference in measured dynamic radii between a hard road and a test surface is small under normal agricultural soil conditions (untilled soil), and thus has little impact on the final results.…”

An Engineering Review of the Farm Tractor's Evolution to a Dominant Design

“…The model discussed in Section 3 may be used to evaluate and inform design of farm tractors. To verify the model's accuracy as implemented, in this section its outputs are compared to published data on production tractors [36] [37].…”

“…Experimental data were obtained from Battiato, Diserens, and Sartori [36] [37], where four different-sized production tractors were tested in various soil conditions. To test a tractor's drawbar pull performance, it would tow a "braking" tractor behind it via an instrumented cable.…”