Analysis of traction performance for an agricultural tractor according to soil moisture content during plow tillage

The traction performance varies depending on the soil conditions. Soil moisture content is one of the soil physical properties and has a great effect on the traction performance of the tractor. Therefore, it is very important to analyze the load characteristics of the tractor according to the soil moisture content. The purpose of this study was to analyze the traction performance of an agricultural tractor according to soil moisture contents. First, in order to measure the load data, the load measurement system was constructed by installing wheel torquemeter, proximity sensor, 6-components load cell and data acquisition. Second, the total field sites for mapping soil moisture contents were divided into 9 m² (3 x 3m) grid. Third, field experiments were conducted by selecting two test sites in Korea. Overall soil moisture content was distributed in range of 20-50%. To analyze the traction performance of the tractor according to the soil moisture content, the data measured at field test sites A and B were integrated into one. The soil moisture contents were divided into three ranges of 20-30, 30-40, and 40-50. The results showed that when the soil moisture contents increased from 20-30 to 30-40, 40-50, dynamic traction ratio increased to 102% and 109%, respectively, and tractive efficiency decreased to 97% and 95%, respectively. The results showed that soil moisture content influences various traction performance such as dynamic traction ratio and tractive efficiency. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the soil moisture content for a study on tractor design and improvement of traction performance.