Determination of Soil Compaction Levels by Agricultural Machinery in Cultivated Fields Using Dynamic Cone Penetrometer
Journal Title: International Journal for Research in Applied Science and Engineering Technology (IJRASET) - Year 2016, Vol 4, Issue 7
Abstract
The increasing soil degradation due to soil compaction may be linked to the increase in weight of agricultural machinery, in the more use of machinery even under unfavourable soil conditions and to poor crop rotation. The objective of the research was to assess the levels of soil compaction in cultivated fields. The research experiment was done in Elfam farm in Moiben Sub County, Uasin Gishu County, Kenya. The soils type was classified as Ferralsols with sandy loam texture. A four wheeled 70 KN tractor was used in the experiments. A multiple linear regression was used to describe the relationships of load, depth and number of passes for penetration resistance. The experiment was conducted at three levels of normal loads of 26 KN, 30 KN and 34 KN and at four levels of number of passes 1, 5, 10 and 15 all with three replications. The penetration resistance were determined at varying levels of loading and number of passes using Dynamic cone penetrometer. The data was analysed using statistical software for analysis of variance (ANOVA) at 95% confidence level and p < 0.05. From the results highest penetration resistance was found to be 52.50 J/cm at 30 KN and a depth below 45cm. The lowest penetration resistance obtained was 9.52 J/cm at 26 KN on the top soil layer. During the test period the moisture content average was 25%. The penetration resistance increased with loading, number of passes and depth. The increased loading and number of passes was particularly found to affect the soil layer above 45cm. From the study it was found that the effect loading and number of passes a have significant impact on penetration resistance. The coefficient of determination (R2) for penetration resistance was found to be 0.8674. The relative compaction from the test results indicate that the soil was 95.5% compacted.
Authors and Affiliations
Wesley Tonui, Crispus Ndiema, Emmanuel Kinyor Mutai
Keywords
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