Optimizing design parameters of a mouldboard plough

Owing to the complexity in designing a mouldboard plough, it has been manufactured mostly based on experience and empirical methods. In this research, a mathematical model of a mouldboard plough has been developed to design it for the minimum amount of operating energy. Using this model, a mouldboard plough requiring the least specific draught was designed for given soil conditions (specific weight of soil, cohesion, soil-metal adhesion, soil-metal frictional angle and soil internal frictional angle) and operating conditions (speed and depth of cut) for a given power availability. Five parameters were set to describe a mouldboard plough, namely width of cut, share angle, side rake angle, angular acceleration of soil inversion in the transverse plant and length of plough in the direction of travel. The designed plough and a commercial mouldboard plough were tested in two different soils in a laboratory soil bin to validate the model and to compare performance. Specific draught requirements were compared and it was found that the difference between predicted and measured specific draught was not significant. The new plough, however, needed significantly less specific draught than the commercial plough at identical operating conditions. (C) 2001 Silsoe Research Institute.