Feasibility Study of Motor Powered Agricultural Tractors Based on Physical and Mechanical Properties of Energy Sources

抄録

The alternate power utilization instead of Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) in an agricultural tractor (AT) was studied by simulation approach for the drivelines of electric battery (EB), fuel cell (FC) and reformed methanol fuel cell (RMFC). The working hours were considered 4 with comparison of weight, volume, soil pressure, and fuel efficiency. In weight comparison, 12% overweight in FC-AT, 16% overweight in RMFC-AT, and 99% overweight of EB-AT were observed for the rated output power of light duty tractor (17.25 kW). Less than 5% overweight of FC-AT and RMFC-AT, and 39%–62% overweight of EB-AT were observed for rated output power of medium and heavy-duty tractor (33.75–75.00 kW). Soil pressure in the root-growing block was observed less than 130 kPa for EB-AT, FC-AT, RMFC-AT in the rated output power from 17.25–75.00 kW. In all the alternatives, ±5% fluctuations in the volume were observed. In the design stage, we proposed, that FC-AT was the best alternative considering weight, volume, and soil pressure. Furthermore, the analytical software AVL Cruise^® was used for vehicle drive line system to find out how weight affects the performance for 75.00 kW EB-AT. The analysis was designed for 4 working hours with full load at 20 km/h of velocity using AVL Cruise^®. The peak velocity was found less than 14.1 km/h, and constant working time was only 3 hours, because of the severe overweight by EB storage.