This course is an Undergraduate Course which is intended for engineers and students in biosystems engineering. It describes the functional performance of agricultural tractors - how and how well they perform the load-pulling function for which they were designed. It treats the tractor in terms of the fundamentals of the subject and consequently is not limited to any type, size or make of tractor.
This course is for students of professional agricultural engineering or equivalent subjects for mechanical engineers and assumes:
- A knowledge of basic mechanics, stress analysis, soil mechanics and power transmission elements appropriate to second year professional engineering courses;
- A general knowledge of the layout and operation of the tractor.
The course develops the subject of tractor performance through the common alternative techniques used in engineering analysis: ideal, i.e. theoretical simple mechanics; experimental (ideal/firm surface, measurement based); theoretical (soft surface); empirical (soft surface).
The course contents include:
- Review of physical and mechanical properties of agricultural soils
- Traction principles for off the road vehicles and tractive performance
- Semi-theoretical method of tractive analysis
- Empirical method of tractive analysis based on dimensional analysis
- Statics and dynamics of farm tractors
- Chassis mechanics
- Mechanics of hitching system
- Determination of tractor center of gravity and moment if inertia