Analysing Wear of Moldboard Plowshare Surface with Respect to the Distance Worked

Wear is the most important problem of moldboard plowshares. Because of cutting the soil, intensity of wear at the front portion of share is large and the effect of its wear on plow performance is considerable. In this research wear of the front portion of moldboard plowshares with respect to distance worked was studied. Wear of cylindrical specimens which were attached to the front portion of plowshares of a semimounted four-bottom moldboard plow was determined in five equally distance interval. The soil was silty clay loam with 13-15% moisture content and the distance worked was 250 kilometers. Statistical analysis of the data indicated that there was no significant difference in the amount of wear of the four shares. In other words, they wore down simultaneously. The wear intensity of shares decreased with increasing distance worked i.e., the amount of weight reduction being highest during the initial period of operation. This may be attributed to “work hardening” due to severe plastic deformation during wear. Two mathematical models based on regression analysis were developed for predicting wear in the front portion of plowshare. The relationship of wear with respect to the distance worked can be expressed by an exponential function having a 0.75 exponent and the relationship of wear at the front edge of shares with respect to distance from point of share by a second order function with determination coefficient of 0.93 Nearly 75% of the total wear in the front edges occurred in the 1.3 length of shares from the tip.