Tillage tools are subject to friction and low-stress abrasive wear processes with the potential deterioration of the desired soil quality, loss of mechanical weed efficacy, and downtime for replacing worn tools. Limited experimental methods exist to quantify investigate the effect of wear-resistant coatings on shape parameters of soil-engaging tools. ASTM standard sand/rubber wheel abrasion and pin-on-disk tests are not able to simulate wear characteristics of the complex shape of the tillage tools. Even though the tribology of tillage tools can be realistic from field tests, tillage wear tests under field conditions are expensive and often challenging to generate repeatable engineering data due to variable soil conditions in the field. A technique that simulated tillage wear of cultivator sweep in a circular soil bin filled with abrasive gravel medium and moisture condition was developed and applied to quantify the wear characteristics of cultivator sweeps with and without hardfaced edges. The hardfaced cultivator sweep had a cemented carbide chip applied to the bottom cutting edge and front tip sections of a standard cultivator sweep according to a proprietary CADEN Edge welding process. The CADEN Edge hardfaced sweeps showed improved wear performance 1.7 times and 3.5 times on mass and shape (sweep length and sweep wing cutting width) dimensions, respectively, compared with the un-hardened standard sweep. The results implied hardfaced cultivator sweep with cemented carbide chips provide potential in maintaining tillage productivity and the desired soil quality for seed-bed preparation.
Aluminum Metal Matrix Composites (ALMMCs) was prepared by using stir casting technique for AA 7075 aluminum alloy as a matrix reinforced with SiC particles at various percentages (3, 6, 9 and 12 wt. % ) and 75µm in grain size. The prepared composite material can be used for many applications such as aerospace, automobiles and many industrial sectors. Abrasive wear test was carried out by two stages: the first stage was done by changing the emery papers at various grit sizes 180, 320, 500, and 1000µm with constant applied load 15N. While the second stage was carried out by changing the applied loads 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25N with constant emery paper at 320 µm grit size. Microstructure examination, hardness test and roughn
... Show MoreRestoration of degraded lands by adoption of recommended conservation management practices can rehabilitate watersheds and lead to improving soil and water quality. The objective was to evaluate the effects of grass buffers (GBs), biomass crops (BCs), grass waterways (GWWs), agroforestry buffers (ABs), landscape positions, and distance from tree base for AB treatment on soil quality compared with row crop (RC) (corn [
In this paper, the Monte-Carlo simulation method was used to compare the robust circular S estimator with the circular Least squares method in the case of no outlier data and in the case of the presence of an outlier in the data through two trends, the first is contaminant with high inflection points that represents contaminant in the circular independent variable, and the second the contaminant in the vertical variable that represents the circular dependent variable using three comparison criteria, the median standard error (Median SE), the median of the mean squares of error (Median MSE), and the median of the mean cosines of the circular residuals (Median A(k)). It was concluded that the method of least squares is better than the
... Show MoreThe study of Stress- Strain relation for novolac reinforced by qujurate plant was carried out before and after the immersing in boiled water at 100C0 . It was found that the compression strength and surface hardness decreased when the composites immersed in boiled water for long times.
Frequency equations for rectangular plate model with and without the thermoelastic effect for the cases are: all edges are simply supported, all edges are clamped and two opposite edges are clamped others are simply supported. These were obtained through direct method for simply supported ends using Hamilton’s principle with minimizing Ritz method to total energy (strain and kinetic) for the rest of the boundary conditions. The effect of restraining edges on the frequency and mode shape has been considered. Distributions temperatures have been considered as a uniform temperature the effect of developed thermal stresses due to restrictions of ends conditions on vibration characteristics of a plate with different
... Show MoreHigh tunnels, or unheated plastic greenhouses, are becoming increasingly popular among organic vegetable growers across the United States. However, the intensive production typical of these systems presents soil health challenges, including salinization due to high fertilizer or compost inputs coupled with lack of rainfall to leach salts. Legume cover crops may improve soil health in high tunnels by reducing the need for external inputs, while adding organic matter. We tested the soil health effects of a winter hairy vetch (Vicia villosa Roth) cover crop used to replace fertilizer N in an organic tomato cropping system in high tunnels. Studies were replicated across three sites differing in climate and soil type (Kansas, Kentucky, and Minne
... Show More