Simulation of components of mould board plough bottom using computer software

Abstract

The goal of the modern farming systems is to economize energy consumption and\rto reduce farming costs. In this study tractor drawn mouldboard plough of two bottoms was\rconsidered. Three main forces like draft force, side draft and vertical component were considered\rin plough bottom design software. Mouldboard plough is primary tillage implement, so that plough\rbottom has high magnitude reaction forces from the soil during tillage and these reaction forces\reffects on construction elements of plough bottom directly. If the construction elements cannot\rcompensate reaction forces, they become useless due to plastic deformation or fracture. Therefore,\rstructure must have been designed as stable durable enough to avoid undesirable failure cases.\rProper selection and use of agricultural machines are important factors to achieve this end. Selection\rof appropriate tractor power and implement is more complex and tedious due to computational\rwork involved in solving the equations for draft and working width and depth of ploughing of\rmouldboard plough bottom. Thus, a computer programme will be developed in visual basic language\rto compute width and the dimensions of the plough bottom by entering the essential inputs like\rtractor available power, soil type etc. for a particular farm situation. Results obtained by using this\rsoftware were validated by comparing the simulated dimensions with some of the commercially\ravailable mouldboard plough. Hence, the developed software can be used as a tool for designing\rmouldboard plough bottom for different horsepower of tractor and soil conditions.