Effect of ploughing depth on average and instantaneous tractor fuel consumptionwith three-share disc plough

摘要

There are many parameters in tillage operationsthat affect the fuel consumption of a tractor. Also there are severalmethods for measuring tractor fuel consumption. In this studytractor fuel consumption was measured by flowmeter sensors. Themeasurement system was installed on the engine of a 72.3 KWJohn Deer 3140 tractor because it is one of the useful tractors, withlong service life and high efficiency in Iran. A three-share discplough was used for studying the effect of plough depth variationson tractor fuel consumption. Results showed that the tractor withthe disc plough attached at depths of 15, 23 and 30 cm consumed19.667, 24.715 and 28.646 l of fuel per hectare, respectively.Increasing plough depth from 15 to 23 and 23 to 30 cm increasedfuel consumption by 25 and 15.9%, respectively. The average fuelconsumptionwas 24 l ha~(-1) at the common plough depth of 15 to 30 cm.Instantaneous fuel consumption during operation of mouldboardplough at three depths increased when working depth increased. Infarm experiments, only the working depth of plough was changed,but variations in time-consumption diagram showed that there areother factors affecting draft and thereby fuel consumption duringoperation, although depth variations had a more pronounced effectthan others on fuel consumption.