Studies on a long soil bin for soil-tool interaction

Abstract

In this scientific paper we presented a soil- tool interaction testing device, which was projected, built, instrumented and evaluated. This soil bin has been designed to study on the soil−tool interaction. It features a 23-m long by 2 -m wide by 1-m deep. An electric drive system was used to pull a carriage by two chains. The carriage has a capacity of testing three prototypes of tools at each run. The testing tools on the moving carriage are pulled or pushed in the soil channel through a chain drive system. Respective transducers were positioned at various localities interfaced to a data acquisition system to measure and save the various measurement parameters such as forces, speed, moments and displacements. The system of data acquisition was able to receive the measured signals in real time, display on the monitor screen and record them into a computer. The performance of the testing facility was evaluated and validated during some initial tests.