Comparison of cone and prismatic tips for measuring soil mechanical resistance by a horizontal sensor

Abstract

 Soil mechanical resistance induced by compaction of agricultural soils is one of the main concerns as it restricts crop yield.  In this study two cone and prismatic tips were compared to measure soil mechanical resistance by a multi-tips horizontal sensor. The horizontal sensor equipped with S-shaped load cells was mounted on the backside of each tip. A factorial experiment was designed with two types of tip and three levels of soil compaction.  Experiments conducted in the soil bin laboratory.  Comparison results between the two cone and prismatic tips of horizontal sensor showed that soil mechanical resistance measured by the sensor had significant differences with each other and also with vertical cone penetrometer data.  Cone tip had greater values than prismatic tip at all levels of soil compaction.  It can be concluded that the horizontal sensor can be used for measuring soil mechanical resistance with both tips. However, the results of prismatic tip had better linear correlation with vertical penetrometer data.