Effect of side-wings on draught: The case of Ethiopian Ard plough (maresha)

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dc.contributor.authorGebregziabher, Solomon
dc.contributor.authorDe Swert, Karel
dc.contributor.authorSaeys, Wouter
dc.contributor.authorRamon, Herman
dc.contributor.authorDe Ketelaere, Bart
dc.contributor.authorMouazen, Abdul Mounem
dc.contributor.authorGebray, Petros
dc.contributor.authorGebrehiwot, Kindeya
dc.contributor.authorBauer, Hans
dc.contributor.authorDeckers, Jozef
dc.contributor.authorDe Baerdemaeker, Josse
dc.date.accessioned2016-07-13T09:30:49Z
dc.date.available2016-07-13T09:30:49Z
dc.date.issued2016-06-15
dc.description.abstractEthiopian farmers have been using an ox-drawn breaking plough, known as ard plough – maresha, for thousands of years. Maresha is a pointed, steel-tipped tine attached to a draught pole at an adjustable shallow angle. It has narrow side-wings, attached to the left and right side of it, to push soil to either side without inverting. The aim of this paper is to explore the effect of side-wings on draught using a field soil bin test facility. To this end, a mobile and an in-situ soil bin test system, for online measurements of draught, was designed and developed. This research considered tool geometry (maresha plough with and without side-wings) and rake angle (shallow – 8°, medium deep – 15°, and deep – 24°, representing primary, secondary and tertiary tillage processes in Ethiopia, respectively). Maresha plough with side-wings has greater contact area, between the moving soil and tool, than its wingless counterpart. When the ploughshare surface and soil slide relative to one another, the draught expected to increase with contact area, as adhesion and friction resistance increases with area. However, experimental analysis indicated that the maresha with side-wings required less draught compared to maresha without side-wings (ρ < 0.001). This might be attributed to the effect of side-wings on crack propagation by a wedging effect to enhance and facilitate subsequent ploughing. This paper also dealt with the effect of rake angle on draught. Though the depth setup was getting smaller d1 < d2 < d3 for the successive tillage runs, analysis showed increment in draught force (ρ < 0.001) with rake angle. This might be attributed to higher soil compaction that comes with depth and downward force resulting from repeated use of maresha every season to the same depth for thousand years. Although more and rigorous studies should be undertaken considering soil, tool, and operational parameters to arrive at conclusive results, this paper gave some insights regarding effect of side-wings on maresha plough and rake angle on draught. This shows that there is still room for improvement of maresha plough geometry for minimum draught requirement and optimum soil manipulation.en_UK
dc.identifier.citationSolomon Gebregziabher, Karel De Swert, Wouter Saeys, Herman Ramon, Bart De Ketelaere, Abdul M. Mouazen, Petros Gebray, Kindeya Gebrehiwot, Hans Bauer, Jozef Deckers, Josse De Baerdemaeker, Effect of side-wings on draught: The case of Ethiopian Ard plough (maresha), Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, Volume 127, September 2016, pp131-140en_UK
dc.identifier.issn0168-1699
dc.identifier.urihttp://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compag.2016.06.004
dc.identifier.urihttp://dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk/handle/1826/10124
dc.language.isoenen_UK
dc.publisherElsevieren_UK
dc.rightsAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
dc.subjectArden_UK
dc.subjectData acquisition systemen_UK
dc.subjectDepthen_UK
dc.subjectDraughten_UK
dc.subjectMobile and in-situ soil binen_UK
dc.subjectMareshaen_UK
dc.subjectRake angleen_UK
dc.subjectSide-wingsen_UK
dc.titleEffect of side-wings on draught: The case of Ethiopian Ard plough (maresha)en_UK
dc.typeArticleen_UK

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