Effect of installing soil-loosening plow on the working performance and power consumption of the shovel-type seedbed preparation machine for rapeseed in rice stubble fields

Abstract

In the rice–rapeseed rotation area of the mid-lower Yangtze River in China, the shovel-type seedbed preparation machine (SSPM) is used to efficiently prepare seedbed for direct rapeseed sowing in a single operation. With a tillage depth of 200 mm, the shovel will be subjected to a significant impact load when penetrating the soil at high speed, leading to accelerated wear of key components and reduced machine reliability. Herein, an active/passive combined tillage machine (ACTM), comprising soil-loosening plow at the front and the SSPM at the rear, was developed and tested in two rice stubble fields. Field experiments were conducted to compare the working performance and power consumption of the SSPM and the ACTM at three different forward speeds, i.e., 1.8, 2.7, and 3.6 km/h. The results indicated that owing to the predisturbance of the uncultivated soil caused by the soil-loosening plow, the ACTM demonstrated lower power takeoff (PTO) torque requirement and total power consumption than the SSPM under identical operating parameters, with average reductions of 30.97 % and 8.42 % in the PTO torque and total power consumption, respectively. Furthermore, the ACTM exhibited superior performance than the SSPM in terms of tillage depth stability coefficient and soil crushing rate. In particular, at a forward speed of 3.6 km/h in field 2, improvements of 18.73 % and 19.65 % in tillage depth stability coefficient and soil crushing rate, respectively, were observed for the ACTM compared with the SSPM. The straw burial rate of SSPM and ACTM in both experimental fields decreased with increasing forward speed, whereas the seedbed surface evenness showed an opposite trend. These findings suggest that integrating soil-loosening plow with SSPM enhances the quality of seedbed for rapeseed in rice stubble fields while reducing PTO torque and total power consumption.