TRIAXIAL FORCE MEASUREMENT AT SPECIFIC POSITIONS ON A SOIL-CUTTING BLADE

In order to create a mathematical model of a soil-cutting blade, it is necessary to understand thoroughly the behavior of a soil dice and it s interaction with the blade surface. The triaxial force transducer wa s developed to serve as one of the various tools to verify the propose d mathematical model. The prototype model transducer was fabricated, c alibrated and tested with a soil slice on a flat cutting blade. The ca libration results have indicated high sensitivity and the capability o f simultaneous measurement in three directions. As a technological ref inement, the detecting part of this triaxial force transducer was tape red to solve the problem of soil clogging in the opening clearance. Fu rthermore, the effects of the clearance configurations between the bor e on the soil-cutting blade and the detecting part which is embedded i n this bore were investigated to determine the most desirable configur ation. The comparative results indicated that by tapering both the det ecting part and the bore, the tangential stress measurement gained the highest value, and provided the most satisfactory condition for three -directional stress management.