Tillage in the agricultural sector is characterised by high abrasive wear losses [3], where various tillage tools (cultivators, chisels, ploughshares, etc.) are used for weed control and seedbed conditions. The EU policy supports no-tillage technology, which mostly uses soil ripper to cut the soil. The shape of the soil ripper highly affects the energy consumption during processing [4]. The project suggests a new strategy to use the knowledge of ship construction and transfer it to solve the problems of soil cultivation. It is not new that ship construction incorporates a bulbous bow which reduces fuel consumption by 12-15%, increases hydrodynamic resistance, and improves plow-in phenomena [5,6]. Due to plow-in phenomena, the bulbous bow shape element can be used in soil processing machines. Given the similarities of bulbous and soil ripper movement, the ship’s bulbous bow design will be adopted in agriculture, where soil cultivation requires high energy and material consumption.
The idea of adapting the element of the ship’s bow arose a long time ago, but it did not reach the point of detailed analysis and testing. No such studies have been published and is likely that they have not been conducted. The first simulation carried out by the project implementers gave promising results, applying the bulbous idea to a soil ripper with a working depth of 20-25cm. The optimised shape of the bulbous reduces material wear losses during the soil processing due to the high soil abrasiveness. Another issue to be addressed is to minimize energy use while ensuring the quality of soil disturbance during tillage. Therefore, the project aims to design and study in laboratory and field conditions a new soil ripper element whose concept is based on the ship’s bulbous bow shape.
Project funding:
Research Council of Lithuania, Projects of Postdoctoral fellowships funded by the state budget of the Republic of Lithuania
Project results:
– Using numerical methods, the optimal shape of the bulbous bow element for the soil cultivator will be designed. The obtained results should confirm the effectiveness of the shape for soil cultivation and reduce the mechanical load on the element.
– After conducting experiments with a 3D-printed bulbous bow prototype in a soil box, its interaction with the soil will be determined and the force acting on the element will be estimated. The obtained data will allow us to assess the effectiveness of the proposed shape and its suitability for practical application.
– The bulbous bow element, made of aluminum alloy, will be tested in an abrasive mass to determine its wear characteristics. During the experiment, abrasive wear tendencies will be evaluated, dominant wear mechanisms will be identified, and the wear resistance of the proposed shape will be justified.
– Experimental studies will be conducted on the bulbous bow element made of W-Cu alloy under laboratory and field conditions. The wear of the element and its profile will be analyzed, and the dependence of material wear resistance on operating conditions will be determined. The results are expected to confirm that the proposed shape and material can be effectively used in agricultural machinery.
Period of project implementation: 2024-02-19 - 2026-02-18
Project coordinator: Kaunas University of Technology
