Experimental assessment of the effect of moisture and the type of soil cultivation on compaction under mechanical action

I. S. Nikulin¹, M. V. Mishunin¹, T. B. Nikulicheva¹, I. G. Borodavkin², A. A. Titenko^2
1Belgorod State National Research University, ul. Pobedy, 85, k. 14, Belgorod, 308015, Russian Federation
²NRU "BelSU" Engineering Centre, ul. Koroleva, 2a, Belgorod, 308033, Rossiiskaya Federatsiya

Abstract. The research aimed to study the effect of moisture content in the soil on its compaction with wheeled vehicles. The work was performed in 2020 on dark grey forest soil in the Belgorod region. We analyzed the soil from six different plots: from two fields used for 8 years according to the no-till system, and two fields, on which intensive technologies of cultivation of crops were used, after sowing winter wheat and sunflower using each of the technologies; field sown with perennial grasses of the 8th year of life; fallow field (more than 20 years without tillage) with meadow grasses. The soil was dried for 3 hours at a temperature of 105 C, then before testing, its moisture content was brought to 0.2%, 5%, 10%, 12.5%, and 15%. To compact the soil, we used Instron testing machine with a maximum load of 1.02 kN/cm2 at a loading rate of 5 mm/min; loading was conducted once at a temperature of 23 C. The selected loading corresponded to the pressure exerted by MTZ-82 tractor. With the moisture content of 12.5%, compaction of the soil from the field with the intensive wheat cultivation technology (13.3 MPa/mm at a load of 10 MPa) was 4 times higher than in the no-till option. An increase in humidity to 15.0% changed the situation to the opposite; the compaction of the sample from the no-till field (13.6 MPa/mm at the load of 10 MPa) exceeded the value of this indicator for the field, where intensive technology was used, 5 times. In the sunflower field, significant differences between the technology options were noted only at the moisture content of 12.5%: the compaction of the sample taken from the no-till field (14.4 MPa/mm at the load of 10 MPa) was 1.4 times higher than in the field where the intensive technology was used. The compaction of the fallow soil increased proportionally to the increase in moisture and was higher than in the field with perennial grasses.

Keywords: soil; soil moisture; soil cultivation; compaction; mechanical impact.

Author Details: I. S. Nikulin, Cand. Sc. (Phys.-Math.), assoc. prof. (Этот адрес электронной почты защищён от спам-ботов. У вас должен быть включен JavaScript для просмотра.); M. V. Mishunin, research fellow; T. B. Nikulicheva, Cand. Sc. (Phys.-Math.), assoc. prof.; I. G. Borodavkin, junior research fellow; A. A. Titenko, junior research fellow.

For citation: Nikulin IS, Mishunin MV, Nikulicheva TB, et al. [Experimental assessment of the effect of moisture and the type of soil cultivation on compaction under mechanical action]. Dostizheniya nauki i tekhniki APK. 2020;34(12):61-5. Russian. doi: 10.24411/0235-2451-2020-11210.