Trafficking and loading behavior on soil and sub-soil
Abstract
The threat of soil degradation due to compaction has increased due to increasing use of heavy machinery in agriculture. An experiment was conducted in soil bin at Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi to determine the extent of compaction in the sub soil layer due to five different passes of a half chassis simulator of tractor at four normal loads of 2.71, 3.69, 4.67 and 5.65 kN. The soil of bin was alluvial with sandy loam texture. The compaction parameters e.g. bulk density and cone penetration resistance was measured at different depths i.e. upto 50 cm at intervals of 5 cm. A statistical model was developed considering soil compaction at different soil depth due to varying normal load and number of passes the bulk density in 0-15cm layer increased up to 11 passes unceasingly. The bulk density obtained in 0-15cm, 15-30cm and 30-45 cm layer were 1.52, 1.55 and 1.49, respectively. The increase in bulk density was more due to increased number of passes than amount load. The effect of increase in load and passes had very marginal effect on compaction at soil depth below 45 cm. The R2 values of the developed models were 0.665, 0.864 and 0.78.
