Design and fabrication of metal and soil draft force measuring equipment

Abstract

This study aims to develop a test equipment design and prototype for measuring the adhesion of metal with soil, represented by the draft force between metals and soils. The tool is designed to measure the draft force by utilizing the friction system of two distinct items that intersect with each other. A strain gauge is used to accurately measure the magnitude of the force, which is positioned atop a load cell. After constructing the adhesion test apparatus, two soil samples, sand and clay, were subjected to evaluation. The tool is equipped with a Nema 23 stepper motor, motor 57, and a DC 24V 5A converter. The Ardiuno Nano Atmega 328 sensor module was used as its sensor module. The test data results show that clay exhibits a greater frictional force compared to sand due to its significant cohesion value and small soil particles, resulting in a strong binding and high soil resistance. Sandy soil, on the other hand, is characterized by coarse particles, low cohesiveness, abundant voids, and low resistance. It is shown that, the measuring apparatus has been successfully fabricated and able to measure the draft force that occurs in steel metal and soils