Soni, Peeyush creator Salokhe, Vilas M. Chairperson Jayasuriya, H.P.W. Examination Committee Athapol Noomhorm Examination Committee AIT Fellowship Scholarship Donor Protected Cultivation Project Scholarship Donor text series technical report th Pathum Thani, Thailand Asian Institute of Technology 2006 continuing eng 1 online resource (108 p.) : ill. The soil-tool adhesion creates an undue liability on power source to exert extra effort, at the cost of increased fuel consumption. Out of the various means of reducing soil-tool adhesion, biomimetic surface design modifications have recently exhibited an attractive bio inspired solution. Learning the tribological characteristics of soil-burrowing animals and copying their surface morphology on to tillage machinery with anti-adhesion objectives is the core theme of this research. With dung beetles as the role model, ultra high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMW-PE) was coupled to the concept of Mounting embossed array of protuberances on plough mouldboard - thus creating a hydrophobic (low surface-energy) non-smooth bionic tool surface. In an attempt to investigate suitable geometry of such construction units, this research comprised five shapes (flat, semi-spherical, semi-oblate, semi short-prolate and semi long-prolate) - resulting from the combination of dimensional factors (base diameter and protrusion height). To incorporate both shape and size, a dimensionless ratio of height to diameter (HDR) was introduced and used to characterize the effect of construction unit's physique. Experiments were conducted to evaluate the- influence of various geometrical shapes and sizes of such UI-IN'IW-PE protuberances (base diameter: 20-50 mm: protrusion height: 0-50 nun) on their relative effectiveness of lowering ploughing resistance of mouldboard plough in Bangkok clay soil at dry (21.8% d.b.), sticky (37.2% d.b.), wet (49.1% d.b.) and flooded (64.3% d.b.) soil-moisture conditions and 1, 3 and 5 km h"i three forward speeds. Percent reduction in ploughing resistance of bionic mouldboard plough in prevailing soil conditions with I-IDR = 0: 1-6% (dry), 16-22% (sticky), 14-20% (wet), 8-12% (flooded); with HDR = 0.25: 2-7% (dry), 18-36% (sticky), 17-33% (wet), 15-28% (flooded); and with HDR = 0.5: 10-16% (sticky), 617% (wet) and 12-26% (flooded). Whereas, HDR>0.5 increased the ploughing resistance by 7-29%. In addition, circular bionic plates were tested in dry (19.8% d.b.), sticky (36.9% d.b.) and flooded (60.1% d.b.) soil conditions for sliding resistance and normal adhesion. Soil at sticky limit exhibited the highest sliding resistance (77.8 N) and normal adhesion (3-7 kPa), whereas these values were 61.7 N and <0.2 kPa in dry, and 53.7 N and 0.5-1.5 kPa in flooded soil condition. Protuberances with HDR <- 0.5 lowered sliding resistance by 10-30% and the same reduced normal adhesion by 1060%. This research, in general, revealed the UHMW-PE protuberances with HDR <_ 0.5 were effective in lowering soil-tool adhesion. Protuberances with HDR > 0.5, on the other hand, were not found suitable for macro-morphological surface modification for bionic tools A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Engineering in Agricultural Engineering, School of Environment, Resources and Development Thesis (Ph.D.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2006 Plows Clay soils Bionics Tillage Asian Institute of Technology. http://203.159.5.9/ait-thesis/detail.php?q=B00163 http://203.159.5.9/ait-thesis/detail.php?q=B00163 071105 20260817171535.0