Evaluating the performance characteristics of mouldboard plough using computer simulation
Authors: Mustafa Ucgul1, Chris Saunders
Research Team: Agricultural Machinery Research and Design Centre, School of Engineering, University of South Australia, Mawson Lakes, SA 5095, Australia
Funded By: GRDC project DAW00244
Project Title: Delivering enhanced agronomic strategies for improved crop performance on water repellent soils in Western Australia
Peer Review: Jack Desbiolles, UniSA
Key Words: mouldboard plough, sands, sandy soils
Key Messages
- Increasing operating speed from 5-15km/h decreases the depth of top soil burial significantly
- Increasing ploughing depth beyond 250mm does not have a significant effect on the depth of top soil burial
- The use of skimmers improves the amount of top burial below 100 mm depth
- Discrete element method (DEM) is a useful tool to evaluate the mechanics of topsoil burial by mouldboard ploughing