Modeling Soil Forces on a Rotary Tine Tool in Artificial Soil

HighlightsA mathematical model of soil reaction forces on a rotary tine tool was developed.Soil bin experiments using artificial soil enabled observation of soil failure due to soil-tine interaction.The model-predicted forces were similar to experimentally measured forces.Abstract. Understanding soil-tool interaction can enable better control of weeding tools to achieve higher weeding efficacy. The interaction between a vertical tine (mounted on a rotating disc) and soil was investigated using a mathematical model that estimated soil horizontal forces on the tine operating at different linear and rotational velocities. The kinematics associated with the linear and rotational velocities of the rotary tine tool were modeled, and the shearing and inertial forces were estimated. To evaluate model performance with different experimental factors, two sets of soil bin experiments were conducted using an artificial soil: with one tine to estimate model parameters and with two tines 180° apart. Experimental factors were longitudinal velocity (travel speed) at three levels (0.09, 0.29, and 0.5 m s-1) and speed ratio, i.e., the ratio of longitudinal velocity to peripheral velocity of the tines, at three levels (1, 1.5, and 2). Soil horizontal force and torque on the rotary tine tool were measured. A nonlinear least squares method was used to estimate model parameters from the experimental data, resulting in shearing force coefficients ranging from 2.9 to 37 N and inertial force coefficients ranging from 16 to 528 N s2 m-2. The variations in the shearing and inertial forces on the tine were due to differences in soil failure patterns among the treatments. The predicted longitudinal and tangential forces for two tines using the model showed trends that were similar to the forces measured in the experiment. However, the model overestimated the predicted forces because it did not account for the reduced force on a tine due to soil disturbance created by the other tine. Keywords: Soil-tine interaction, Weed control.