West Lafayette, Indiana — Modern farm tractors contain so many cutting-edge technologies that they can even rival the latest spacecraft. But the back end is still old school, relying mainly on fossil fuels. Therefore, any optimization of tractor efficiency is a huge victory for the environment.

With this in mind, researchers at Purdue University undertook a $3.2 million Department of Energy project to optimize the hydraulic system that connects tractors and farm tools.

"Fluid power is everywhere," said Andrea Vacca, chairman of Purdue University's Maha School of Fluid Power, professor of mechanical engineering, agriculture, and bioengineering, and director of the Maha Fluid Power Research Center, the largest academic hydraulic laboratory in the United States. "It's used in airplanes, automobiles, and all kinds of heavy equipment. Tractors are an example. They use fluid power to drive everything, from steering and propulsion, to powering the tools it drags behind."

But it turns out that powering the tools is a problem. The tractor's hydraulic control system shows only 20% efficiency when connected to the hydraulic system of certain implements (such as planters, seeders, and buckets).

"There is a conflict in control and the two systems are almost fighting each other," said Dr. Patrick Stump. A student of mechanical engineering. "So when it is connected to the planter, the tractor must always run at extremely high power, which wastes fuel and increases emissions."

In this research funded by the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy of the U.S. Department of Energy, Vacca’s team focused on specific combinations of tractors and seeders, both of which were provided by Case New Holland Industries, hydraulic systems Provided by Bosch Rexroth. See the video.

The planter is 40 feet wide and has 16 rows of planting.

"Each line has multiple machines working together to sow seeds," said Guo Xiaofan, a doctoral student. A student of mechanical engineering. "There is a cleaning wheel in front that can remove the existing vegetation. The cutting disc cuts a small trench on the ground, the motor actually pushes the seeds into the ground, the sprayer sends water and fertilizer into the hole, and then the last disc covers the hole. There are 16 of these planting rows that require specific pressure to successfully plant seeds. All of these are powered by a hydraulic system."

To solve the problem of optimizing the tractor-planter combination, Vacca's team chose a three-stage approach. First, the researcher needs to characterize the hydraulic system and build a simulation model in the computer.

"These tractors are expensive and complicated machines," said Nitta, a doctoral student. Students who develop models in four years. "So we first modeled individual components and tested them under static conditions in the laboratory. When these results were accurate, we combined the component models into a system-and tested the system-so that we You can verify that the entire model is valid. This model is big and complex, and my team calls it a'monster!'"

Once they validate their model, the researchers move to the second phase: develop a solution that they can test.

"Different planting conditions require different pressures and flows," Tian said. "If the model shows promising improvements in power and efficiency, then we can start implementing these changes under real-world conditions."

For the third phase—real-world testing—the team equipped the tractor-planter combination with countless sensors.

"We need to know how much power the tractor consumes, what the hydraulic pump is doing, and what the pressure and flow of the entire planter is," said Jack Lungacher, a first-year doctoral student. student. "All these wiring leads to the new data acquisition box we installed in the cab, so we can have a complete picture of what is happening during the planting cycle."

Fortunately, Purdue University has many places for giant tractors to roam. The College of Agriculture allocated a quarter of a mile to Vacca's team at the Animal Science Research and Education Center in West Lafayette.

"We are very lucky at Purdue University," Waka said. "We have a lot of laboratory space in Maha, we can test these large machines under controlled conditions; agriculture also has a lot of farmland, where we can conduct field research."

Since none of the team members have operated such a large tractor in the field, Case New Holland provided training to teach them how to drive.

"The absolute power of a 435-horsepower 35,000-pound tractor pulling a 10,000-pound planter — it’s amazing,” Stump said. "But there are also a lot of things to do in the cab, especially to operate the planter. This is definitely a two-person job, so usually Jack monitors the data on the laptop in the cab."

The team conducted multiple trials in the spring of 2021, where they planted corn seeds at different predetermined engine speeds and planting speeds. After combing through the data, they found that their new hydraulic control system translated into a 25% increase in overall efficiency.

"Considering the amount of fuel consumed by a typical tractor, this is a huge improvement," Vacca said. "And this is just the beginning. Our project goal is to double the efficiency of the entire hydraulic control system. In the future, we plan to establish a pressure control method for the control logic, which has never been tried in agricultural vehicles."

"When I see the data that proves the effectiveness of our solution, I am very happy," Guo said. "I grew up in a city, so going out on a farm like this is a very exciting experience for me. My specialty is control systems, so seeing our theory in the laboratory being tested in the real world is very Interesting. Fluid power is a mature field, but there is still a lot of potential to come up with new systems and new architectures to make things better."

Stump said: "I never thought I would drive a tractor through farmland to study for a PhD. I have plans to enter aerospace. But the hydraulic systems on these tractors are as complicated as airplanes or rockets. In-depth study of fluid power is very suitable for me. The future in engineering."

Tian said: "This is of course the highlight of my time at Purdue University. I have invested a lot of time in these models and it is really a happy moment for me to see the improvement of the results."

Vacca said: "Seeing the hard work of our students-and witnessing an idea from the laboratory to the field-this is really the best part of our work." 

Media Contact: Kayla Wiles, 765-494-2432, wills5@purdue.edu

Source: Andrea Vacca, avacca@purdue.edu

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