Determination of traction force acting on a wide blade using dimensional analysis Method

ABSTRACT: Tillage is one of the underlying operations in agriculture consuming large amount of energy in compare to the other agricultural operations;therefore it is essential to estimate the traction and power requirement for determination the tractor power and type, tillage tools energy requirement and the cost. In the present research, a new mathematical model has been obtained based on the dimensional analysis in order to estimate the traction forces of a tillage tool. In this model, the forces acting on a blade are considered as a function of tools design parameters, engineering properties of the soil and the operational conditions. In this research ten variables have been considered in the Buckinghamʹstheory and three parameters of speed, specific weight and working width have been considered as repeating variables. Finally the obtained model has been compared with the available experimental data of other researchers and the modified model of Mackyes&Ali. The estimation of proposed model in this research shows a good agreement with the experimental results: depth of 10 cm, blades angle of 45 andforward velocity up to 1.75( ). The obtained results based on the presented model indicate a better agreement in compare to the model of Mackyes&Ali based on the experimental data used in this study.