Determination of energy requirements, plowed soil volume rate and soil pulverization ratio of chisel plow under various operating conditions

A field experiments were conducted using a chisel plow in silty loam soil at Agricultural Research Station of Garmat Ali in 2017. Three different levels of forward speed (0.65, 0.87 and 1.65 m sec-1 ) and plowing depth (10, 20 and 30 cm) were used to study their effect on energy utilization efficiency, specific energy, plowed soil volume rate and soil pulverization ratio. The results showed that increasing the forward speed from 0.55 to 1.35 m sec-1 , the specific energy, plowed soil volume rate and soil pulverization ratio were increased by 139.43%, 85.10% and 51.72%, respectively, while decreased the energy utilization efficiency by 30.04%. Increasing plowing depth from 10 to 30 cm led to increasing the energy utilization efficiency and the plowed soil volume rate by 34.30% and 87.38%, respectively. In contrast, the soil pulverization ratio and the specific energy decreased by 45.83% and 19.86%, respectively. The interaction between the forward speed and the plowing depth had a significant effect on all parameters in this study.