College of Engineering

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://ir.funaab.edu.ng/handle/123456789/252

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Browsing College of Engineering by Author "BABALOLA, Ayoola Abiola"

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    DEVELOPMENT OF AN INSTRUMENTED RIG SYSTEM FOR MEASURING TRACTOR TILLAGE PERFORMANCE IN SOUTHWEST NIGERIA
    (2025-07-16) BABALOLA, Ayoola Abiola
    ABSTRACT Tractor use and implement selection in Nigeria have not been fully optimised for sustainable agricultural mechanisation due to insufficient information on tractor-implement performance in field operations and robust tractor implement testing standards. In this study, an instrumented rig system for measuring tractor performance was designed, fabricated and evaluated for the measurement of tillage parameters during ploughing and harrowing on a sandy loam soil. The instrumented system included an IoT-based three-point hitch dynamometer, travel speed device, wheel slip meter, a 3D vibration meter, a 5- in-1 emission meter (that can measure carbon dioxide, formaldehyde, total volatile organic compound, PM 2.5 and PM 10), a carbon monoxide meter, an inclinometer, and a sound meter.The system was tested on a well-maintained Case II tractor in a completely randomised factorial experiment on a 130.5 by 30 m plot at coordinates 7.218° N and 3.434 °E, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta. The factors of the study were, tractor travel speed (kmhr-1), implement depth (cm) and implement type while the parameters measured included implement draft, power consumption, wheel slip, fuel consumption, ride quality, sound level, vibration (acceleration) and exhaust gas emissions.The results showed that draft values duringploughing ranged from 284.67 N at 10 cm depth, 3 kmhr-1 travel speed to 12944.4 N at 30 cm, 7 kmhr1 while the values ranged from 315 N to13710N for the same depths and travel speed combination during harrowing. Power consumption ranged from 359 to 25169.97 W during ploughing while it ranged from 293 to 27588.4 W during harrowing. Fuel consumption ranged from 0.21 to 0.83 litremin-1during ploughing and 0.21 to 0.95litremin-1 during harrowing.The minimum and maximum values of ride quality recorded during ploughing were 0.06 to 5.4ms-2while values recorded during harrowing were 0.0207 to 4.193 ms-2. Vibration (acceleration) ranged from 1.46 to23.7 ms-2 for ploughing while the value for harrowing ranged from 2.21 to18.57 ms-2 at the maximum travel speed and implement depth, respectively. The wheel slip ranged from 3.4 to 8.7¬¬% during ploughing while during harrowing, the wheel slip ranged from 2.5 to 8.9%.The sound levels for ploughing ranged from 82.6 to 85.1 dB while the harrowing operation produced sound levels of 64.79 to 86.73 dB which are within NIOS and OSHA standards, respectively. The CO2 obtained from the study during ploughing ranged from 835 to 2478 ppm (<5,000 ppm WHO standard) while the values recorded obtained during harrowing was from 899to 2513 ppm. The values of carbon monoxide emission recorded during ploughing ranged from 200 to 659 ppm (>90ppm EPA standard), while the CO emission values for harrowing ranged from 189 to 355 ppm at 3 kmhr-1 and 7 kmhr-1 respectively. ANOVA (α= 0.05) revealed that implement draft, power consumption fuel consumption and vibration (acceleration) were significantly affected by a change in implement depth and travel speed. The performance recorded for the instrumented rig system improved greatly on the sandy loam soil in southwest Nigeria.