Soil Compaction under Different Traction Resistance Conditions—A Case Study in North Italy

Kaihua Liu (), Marco Benetti, Marco Sozzi, Franco Gasparini and Luigi Sartori ()
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Kaihua Liu: Department of Land, Environment Agriculture and Forestry, University of Padova, 35020 Legnaro, Italy
Marco Benetti: Department of Land, Environment Agriculture and Forestry, University of Padova, 35020 Legnaro, Italy
Marco Sozzi: Department of Land, Environment Agriculture and Forestry, University of Padova, 35020 Legnaro, Italy
Franco Gasparini: Department of Land, Environment Agriculture and Forestry, University of Padova, 35020 Legnaro, Italy
Luigi Sartori: Department of Land, Environment Agriculture and Forestry, University of Padova, 35020 Legnaro, Italy

Agriculture, 2022, vol. 12, issue 11, 1-23

Abstract: Tractive efficiency is essential in tillage operations to optimise traction performance. In this field experiment, the tractor performance was measured under different traction resistance conditions. This study quantified the soil stress, soil bulk density, soil moisture, soil cone index, soil surface disturbance, rolling resistance and slip rate under different numbers of passes and traction conditions. The actual power used under different soil and traction conditions was collected. Fuel consumption and savings were calculated between uncompacted soil, compacted soil and the permanent traffic lane. The results show that soil stress increases in each location as traction and the number of passes increase. Soil’s physical properties increase, such as the soil bulk density, soil cone index and soil surface disturbance. Additionally, the slip rate increases with traction in each soil condition as uncompacted soil, compacted soil and the permanent traffic lane. The results show that the permanent traffic lane has a lower slip rate under different traction conditions than the uncompacted and compacted soil. Furthermore, the permanent traffic lane has less energy consumption with the same traction resistance. The permanent traffic lane saved 25.50%, 29.23% and 42.34% fuel compared to the uncompacted field in 7.85, 14.71 and 24.52 kN traction conditions, respectively. Our results confirm that dynamic factors such as traction and rolling resistance should be considered in soil compaction research rather than static weight only. In practice, the controlled traffic farming (CTF) system or driving the tractor more frequently on the permanent traffic lane should be considered to improve working efficiency and reduce energy consumption.

Keywords: soil compaction; traction; slip rate; rolling resistance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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