Results of experimental studies of the plow for coupling with drawbar category 3 tractors

BACKGROUND: For the cultivation of agricultural crops, the technology of basic dump tillage is widely used. More than 40% of energy resources are spent on it, due to the traction resistance of the working bodies of general-purpose plows. The technological process of plowing with such bodies has not changed much historically. Pruning of the soil layer is carried out with a ploughshare, crumbling and turning are carried out with a blade, the stability of the movement of the body is provided by a landside plate. At the same time, the resistance of a landside plate accounts for up to 20% of the total component of the traction resistance of the plow body. To reduce the traction resistance, the plow body without a landside plate has been developed in the Saratov State Agrarian University.

AIMS: Determination of towing and operational characteristics of the PBS-5M ploughshare for coupling with drawbar category 3 tractors and operation on heavy loamy soils.

METHODS: The experiments were carried out on the field, cultivated with a disk harrow after winter barley harvesting, in Novokubansky district of Krasnodar Region. The 0–30 cm soil layer had moisture ranged from 16.4 to 19.7% and hardness ranged from 1.86 to 2.74 MPa. The mass of plant and crop residues on the site averaged 185 g/m², and the average height of weed plants was 10.8 cm.

RESULTS: The towing and operational characteristics of the plowing unit, consisting of a serial T-150K drawbar category 3 tractor and an experimental PBS-5M plow, have been determined. The experiments were carried out for two variants of the plow. The first variant has the five-body configuration of the plow with the working grip width of 2.83 m and the plowing depth of 22 cm. The second variant has the four-body configuration of the plow with the working grip width of 2.27 m and the plowing depth of 30 cm. The driving mode of the first variant of the T-150K+PBS-5M unit varied in the operating velocity range from 7.27 to 9.2 km/h, the driving mode of the second variant of the unit was with the operating velocity up to 5.72 km/h. The energy intensity of the five-body plow was determined, corresponding to the traction and power characteristics of a drawbar category 3 tractor with a small power reserve of 2.87%. The PBS-5M four-body plow requires the power, almost equal to the operational power of the T-150K tractor engine.

CONCLUSIONS: As a result of experimental studies of the T-150K+PBS-5M plowing unit when processing the field, cultivated with a disk harrow after winter barley harvesting, it was found that the plow can be coupled with tractors of drawbar category 3. The reasonable mode of operation of the plow with the five-body configuration is provided at the velocity of 7–8 km/h and the plowing depth of 21–22 cm. The output during the main operation time of the unit was 2.1–2.3 ha/h, the fuel consumption was 12.9–12.7 kg/ha. The specific energy consumption of the unit was 47.5–46.78 kWh/ha, and the specific energy consumption of the plow was 31.26–31.4 kWh/ha. The engine load with the track skidding of 6.9–9.7% was 78–86%. With increasing unit velocity and increasing plowing depth, the values of the specific energy consumption of the unit and the plow raise as well. In field studies, it was found that it is necessary to use the tractor of higher drawbar category in order to couple the plow for the velocity up to 10 km/h and the plowing depth up to 30 cm in these agrotechnical conditions.