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Title : Design and Development of Tractor Operated Farmyard Manure Spreader
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Author: Nagaraj.N Dept. of Mechanical Engg. University: S.J.C. Institute of Technology, Chickballapur, Karnataka, India
ISSN :
Volume: 01 Issue: 01
Publication Year: June 2026
ABSTRACT
A tractor operated farmyard manure spreader was designed and developed. The developed machine consists of tractor trolley, power transmissions system, spreader unit, hydraulic system and adjustable door. The modeling of manure spreader was carried out using CATIA V5 software. The spreader unit was subjected to structural analysis using ANSYS V 15 software and it was found that the stress and deformation was within the safe limit for the required load. The machine was evaluated in field at three different forward speeds. It was found that application rate of manure and coefficient of uniformity of distribution ranged from 5.69 to 16.29 tonne per hectare and 71.39 to 89.55 percent respectively. The effective field capacity and width of spread was observed are 0.352 hectare per hour and 1.60 meters at forward speed of 0.83 meters per second.
Keywords—spreader unit; CATIA V5; ANSYS V15; farmyard manure
I. INTRODUCTION
The negative impact of chemical fertilizers changes the soil pH, soil acidifications and lower humic acid contents. These are the some key problems of overuse of synthetic fertilizers, have led to growing interests in the use of organic fertilizers as a source of nutrients. Organic farming in India is gaining more importance due to use of bio fertilizers, farm yard manure and bio products for crop production. Farmyard manure (FYM) is the oldest organic manure used by the man kind since from the longest time. FYM is partially composed dung, urine, bedding and straw. Dung comes mostly as undigested material and the urine from the digested material. Farmyard manure is rich in nutrients and a small portion of N is directly available to the plants while a larger portion is made available as and when the farmyard manure decomposes. FYM contains approximately 5 - 6 kg nitrogen, 1.2 - 2.0 kg phosphorus and 5 - 6 kg potash per tonne. Timely application of manure in accordance with the nutrient requirements of the crops results in the improved crop production. The application of manure has mechanized in advanced countries like other field operations but in India, the indigenous methods are still followed, i.e., loaded trolley or bullock cart is moved on the field and stopped at regular interval where a man other than the driver unloads a small amount of manure and drops it in the form of a heaps and later spread around manually with spades. This type of spreading results in an uneven spread and uncontrolled rate per unit area.
In modern agriculture, tractor has become one of the major sources of power which is generally used for majority of the agricultural operations like land development, tillage, sowing, harvesting, threshing, irrigation and transportation. Tractors help in reducing the time required for these operations. It is also used as power source in farms for different farm works hence; it has become the integral part of mechanized agriculture. Hence, research based development work is essential to identify problems in mechanical manure spreading and develop appropriate tractor operated farmyard manure spreader to meet long term objective of mechanical spreading of farmyard manure.
The development of suitable equipment to spread farmyard manure uniformly in the field and should be compatible to the tractor operated farmyard manure spreader. This equipment can reduce the cost of operation and ensure timeliness of operation with high spreading uniformity. Keeping the above observations in view tractor operated farmyard manure spreader was developed for effective spreading of farmyard manure in the fields.
II. DESIGN OF SPREADER UNIT BLADE
The manure spreader consists of L type of blade these blades are suited for various operating conditions. The work quality by using a L-type blade not only depends on design parameters but blade layout, speed of spreader unit, forward speed of tractor etc. which are significantly affects the machine performance. The proper design of the spreader unit blades is essential to efficient operation and working life time of the blades can be increased by a suitable design according to the manure type and manure condition. Hence, the object is to design suitable spreader unit blade and analyzing using finite element analysis method to increase the useful life of the blade. Fig.1. describes the important design parameter of typical manure spreader unit blade. Operating parameters which were considered during the static analysis are given below:
Speed of spreader unit rpm = 134, Total number of blade = 18, Number of blades on each side of the flanges=3 and hence ne = 18/3.
E. Description of the manure spreader
The main components of the developed implement were:
i. Tractor trolley
The tractor trolley was rectangular shape 3290 × 1830 × 600 mm. The spreader unit was on the rear end.
ii. Power transmission system
The power for manure spreader unit was transmitted from ground wheel assembly through chain and sprocket arrangements. The ground wheel assembly provided exactly between the trolley wheels and made to rotate on the ground as tractor moves forward.
iii. Spreader unit
The manure spreading operation was carried out by the specific unit called spreader unit. This is operated by the ground wheel assembly. It consists of the solid rotary shaft, flanges, cutting blades. The solid rotary shaft of diameter 45 mm, length 1940 mm and flange having diameter 300 mm, thickness 10mm.Six flanges were welded on rotary shaft keeping 263 mm pitch distance between each flange, for every flange 3 blades were fitted using nut and bolts.
iv. Hydraulic system
During on road conditions, ground wheels must be lifted upward to avoid damage. For lifting of ground wheel, hydraulic system was installed.
v. Adjustable door
Adjustable door controls the flow of manure towards the spreader unit. According to requirement the opening gap can be easily maintained and it is made up of 18 gauge GI metal sheet of size 1640 mm width× 625 mm height
A.Study of different physical parameters of farmyard manure
Farmyard manure is a heterogeneous material. The physical parameters vary as per the different condition and these physical parameters of manure have high influence on the performance of the tractor operated farmyard manure spreader. Hence, the following important physical parameters of farmyard manure were considered for the study.
1. Moisture content.
2. Bulk density.
3. Dry matter content.
4. Angle of repose.
5. Co-efficient of friction.
B.Variables considered for field evaluation
There are two types of variables they are as follows
I. Independent variables
• Forward speed of tractor, m/s (0.55, 0.83, 1.11)
• Adjustable frame opening, m (0.15, 0.20, 0.25)
• Tractor trolley slope, degree (25, 35, 45)
II. Dependent variables
• Application rate, kg/ha
• Width of manure spread in the field, m
• Effective field capacity, ha/h
• Field efficiency, per cent
• Coefficient of uniformity, per cent
IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
A. Stress analysis of spreader unit
The spreader unit designed for spreading the manure to the field was subjected to structural analysis using ANSYS V15 software. The load of 10 N applied on the three blades of spreader unit by considering standard Earth's gravity of 9806.6 mm/s2 is applied as a load at C.G location in Y-direction. It could be seen from Fig .11 that the maximum equivalent stress value of 2.4MPa and minimum equivalent stress of 0.00027561 MPa was recorded which is within the yield strength of 260 MPa (M.S steel).Hence the design of spreader unit is safe with respect to stress.
B. Deformation of spreader unit.
The spreader unit subjected to structural analysis using ANSYS-15 software. The load of 10 N was applied on the each blade of spreader unit to find out the deformation. The data illustrate in Fig.12 indicates that the material of spreader unit undergoes deformation. The maximum deformation of 0.03 mm was recorded which is within the allowable limits of M.S. steel (3.34 mm). Hence the design of spreader unit is safe with respect deformation. The effect of the forward speed, adjustable frame opening and tractor trolley slope on the application rate has been presented in Fig.13.From these figures, it was found that, all the three independent parameters viz., forward speed of the tractor, adjustable frame opening size and tractor trolley slope influence the application rate of farmyard manure spreader. As the forward speed increases the application rate is decreasing, where as the application rate is increasing with increase in the adjustable frame opening size and the tractor trolley slope. The effects of the forward speed, end gate opening size, tractor trolley slope on the coefficient of uniformity has been presented in Fig.14. From these figures, it was observed that, the forward speed of the tractor, adjustable frame opening size and tractor trolley slope were significantly influenced the coefficient of uniformity of the farmyard manure spreader. Coefficient of uniformity increase with decrease in the forward speeds of the machine and increases with increase in the adjustable frame opening and tractor trolley slope.
V. CONCLUSIONS
The tractor operated farmyard manure spreader was developed and modeled using CATIA V5 software and analyzed using ANSYS V15 software. The spreader unit subjected to structural analysis using ANSYS V15 software. Maximum equivalent stress value of 2.4MPa and maximum deformation of 0.03 mm was recorded, which are within allowable limits (260 Mpa and 3.34mm) of mild steel. Hence
design is safe with respect to stress and deformation.
Based on the field evaluation analysis results we conclude that
- Application rate of the tractor operated FYM spreader at different forward speeds, different openings and different trolley slopes varied from 5.69 t/h to16.29 t/ha.
- Co-efficient of uniformity of the tractor operated FYM spreader at different forward speeds varied from 71.39 % to 89.55 %.
- Average effective field capacity of 0.352 ha/h found at the 0.83 m/s forward speed of the tractor operated farmyard manure spreader
- Width of spread (swath) of 1.60 m was observed for the tractor operated farmyard manure spreader.
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