RESULTS OF FIELD EXPERIMENTS WITH THE UNIVERSAL ROOT CROP HARVESTER

ABSTRACT

One of the urgent tasks is to develop a root crop harvester project that is small in size and capable of harvesting several types of root crops suitable for Uzbekistan's climatic conditions. The article presents the results of experiments conducted on a universal root crop harvester that can gather various types of root crops, focusing on the impact of the harvesting depth, the entry angle of the plow into the soil, and its length on the agrotechnical and energy performance indicators of the harvester. To harvest root crops with minimal energy and high quality, it is emphasized that the root crop harvester should have a digging depth of 26 cm, an entry angle of 25 degrees for the plow into the soil, and a length of 30 cm for the plow.

АННОТАЦИЯ

Одной из актуальных задач является разработка проекта корнеплода небольшого размера, способного собрать несколько видов корнеплодов, подходящих для климатических условий Узбекистана. В статье представлены результаты экспериментов, проведенных на универсальном корнеплодов, который может собирать различные виды корнеплодов, акцентируя внимание на влиянии глубины уборки, угла ввода лемеха в почву, его длины на агротехнические и энергетические показатели работы комбайна. Чтобы собрать корнеплодов с минимальными затратами энергии и высоким качеством, необходимо, чтобы глубина копания корнеплодов составляла 26 см, угол входа лемеха в почву - 25 градусов, а длина плуга - 30 см.

Keywords: root crop, depth of digging, plow, guide, completeness of harvesting.

Ключевые слова: корнеплод, глубину уборки, лемех, поводок, полнота уборки

Introduction. The Strategy for the Development of Agriculture of the Republic of Uzbekistan for 2020-2030 sets out tasks, including “…rational use of land and water resources, increasing labour productivity in farms, and improving product quality”. Accordingly, various reforms are being carried out in our country’s agriculture to save water and energy in growing agricultural crops, increase soil fertility and yield [1].

Considering that the average land area available to each farmer growing root crops in Uzbekistan is 5 hectares, large-scale root crop harvesting machinery manufactured abroad would be a significant detriment to farmers. This is because the price of these machines is very expensive for small farms. Taking the above into consideration, the development of a root crop harvester project that is small in size and capable of harvesting several types of root crops is one of the urgent issues [2].

Scientific research by world scientists on the above issue was studied [3-6]. The design of a universal root crop harvester was developed at the Scientific Research Institute of Agricultural Mechanization (Figure 1) [7].

Methods. Field trials of the universal root crop harvester were conducted using the example of harvesting carrot crops grown in the experimental farm of the Scientific Research Institute of Agricultural Mechanization and in the fields of farms in Yangiyo’l district of Tashkent region (Figure 2).

During the experiments, the effect of the depth of digging, the angle of entry of the plow into the soil, and its length on the damage to carrot, the completeness of the harvesting, and the resistance of the aggregate to pulling was studied.

Figure 1. Overall view of the universal root crop harvester

1 - wheels, 2 - bolts securing the wheel column, 3 - wheel column, 4 – root crop harvester suspension, 5 - column holding the main plow, 6 - main plow, 7 - auxiliary plows

Based on the results of the theoretical research, the depth of digging in the experiments was varied from 18 cm to 30 cm in intervals of 4 cm, the entry angle of the plow into the soil was varied from 15⁰ to 30⁰ in intervals of 5⁰, and the length of the plow was changed from 25 cm to 40 cm in intervals of 5 cm. In the experiments, the installation angle and height of the guide relative to the direction of movement of the guide were 15° and 27 cm, respectively, and the speed of movement of the harvester was in the range of 0.8-1.2 m/s.

Figure 2. The Process of Conducting Experiments

Results. During the experiment, the impact of digging depth on carrot damage, the completeness of harvesting, and the resistance to the harvester were studied. The results of the experimental research are given in Table 1.

With an increase in digging depth and a decrease in the speed of the aggregates, the damage to carrots decreases. The least damage to the carrot is observed when the digging depth is 26 cm and at both speeds of 0.8-1.2 m/s, the damage is less than 2.5 percent. When the digging depth is 18 cm and the speed of the aggregates is at 0.8-1.2 m/s, the loss rate of carrots is above 3 percent. 

As the digging depth increases from 18 cm to 26 cm, the completeness of the harvesting increases at both speeds; however, when changing from 26 cm to 30 cm, it decreases by 1 percent. This is due to the average value of the part of the carrot that remains underground being 18-22 cm, so as the digging depth increases to 26 cm, the completeness of the harvesting correspondingly increases. When the digging depth exceeds 26 cm, the excess soil volume is explained by burying small-sized carrots. 

As the digging depth increases, the resistance force against pulling also increases at both speeds. This situation can be explained by the increasing size of the layer of soil that appears at the front part of the harvester plow as the digging depth increases.

Table 1.

The effect of digging depth on the performance of the harvester

During the experiment, the effect of the plow's angle of entry into the soil on the damage to carrot, the completeness of harvesting, and the resistance to the universal root crop digger was studied. The results of the experimental research are given in Table 2.

We can see that carrot damage decreases as the angle of the plow entering the soil increases and the speed of the aggregate movement decreases. The least damage to root crops was observed at an angle of the plow entering the soil of 25⁰-30⁰, with a movement speed of 0,8-1,2 m/s, which was less than 2%. At an angle of the plow entering the soil of 15⁰ and a movement speed of 0,8-1,2 m/s, the damage rate of carrot was more than 2.5%. Based on the experimental results, it can be concluded that the optimal angle of the plow entering the soil is between 25⁰ and 30⁰ degrees.

As the entry angle of  the  plow  into the  soil  changed  from 15⁰ to 25⁰, the completeness of carrot harvesting increased. It can be seen that if the speed of movement is lower, the completeness of harvesting is better. However, when the entry angle of the plow into the soil changed from 25⁰ to 30⁰, the completeness of harvesting remained almost unchanged at both movement speeds of 0.8-1.2 m/s, with the completeness of harvesting being 99 percent and 97 percent, respectively.

Table 2.

Effect of plow on the performance indicators of harvester at the angle of entry into the soil

The resistance of the universal root crop harvester increased as the entry angle of the plow into the soil was gradually raised from 15⁰ to 30⁰ in intervals of 5⁰. In this situation, the increase in both movement speeds of the aggregate can be explained by the fact that the sharper the entry angle of the plow into the soil, the better the soil cutting ability will be, and as the entry angle of the plow increases, the amount of soil at the front of the plow also increases.

During the experiment, the effect of plow length on the damage of carrot, the completeness of harvesting, and the resistance of universal root crop harvesters was studied. The results of the experimental research are presented in Table 3.

When the length of the plow is increased from 25 cm to 35 cm at both movement speeds, the damage to the carrot decreases, and when it is changed to 40 cm, it slightly increases again. This situation indicates that when the length of the plow is longer than 35 cm, the carrots experience more damage due to the longer distance travelled on the plow.

Table 3.

The effect of the length of the plow on the performance of the harvester

As the length of the plow changed from 25 cm to 35 cm, the completeness of the harvesting increased. It can be seen that when the movement speed is lower, the completeness of harvesting is better. However, when the length of the plow changed from 35 cm to 40 cm, the completeness of harvesting remained almost unchanged at both movement speeds of 0.8-1.2 m/s, with the completeness of harvesting being 98.5 percent and 97 percent, respectively. 

The resistance to pulling of the universal root crop harvester increased as the length of the plow was gradually increased from 25 cm to 40 cm in 5 cm intervals at both movement speeds of the aggregate. This situation can be explained by the increase in the soil volume in the front part of the plow as its length increases.

Conclusion. Based on the results of conducted experiments, the optimal depth for the universal root crop harvester in the agricultural fields of Uzbekistan is 26 cm, the soil entry angle of the plow is 25 degrees, and the blade length is 30 cm. This design allows for the harvesting of the carrot crop with minimal energy consumption, the lowest damage rate, and the complete harvesting of the crop from the field.

References:

1. Decree No. PF-5853 of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan dated October 23, 2019, on the "Approval of the Strategy for the Development of Agriculture in the Republic of Uzbekistan for 2020-2030."
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6. Xiao Xiao, Fangping Xie, Zhouqiao Zhao. Design and Experimentation of a Self-Propelled Picking Type White Radish Combine Harvester // Agriculture 2023, 13(8), 1578; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture13081578 
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