Effect of Horizontal and Vertical Axis Rotavators on Soil Physical Properties and Energy Requirement

Vertical and horizontal axis rotavators were tested in the field at two different moisture contents (11.78% and 10.51%). Their performance results were analyzed in terms of tilling quality of soil and energy requirement. The effects of two operating parameters namely tilling depth and operating speed on soil physical properties like soil mean weight diameter, soil penetration resistance, bulk density and soil disturbed area were evaluated. The average values of soil mean weight diameter, cone index, bulk density and the percentage of soil disturbed area by using vertical and horizontal axis rotavators were found to be 4.00 and 4.72 mm; 53.00 and 56.20 kPa; 1.18 and 1.22 g/cm³ and 94.43 and 91.19% respectively. The average values of fuel consumption and energy requirement were found to be 15.60 and 13.20 l/ha; 958.23 and 816.47 MJ/ha for vertical and horizontal axis rotavators respectively. Based on tilling quality of soil, vertical rotavator was found better while economic point of view the horizontal rotavator was found better. The optimum tilling depth and operating speed were found to be 10 cm and 2.71 km/h respectively for both the rotavators.