2009 Volume 71 Issue 5 Pages 5_67-5_72
We investigated the effect of operating conditions such as traveling speed gears, Power Take-Off (PTO) gears and engine speed of a 24kW agricultural tractor on fuel consumption. This paper reports the results of indoor tests conducted by applying loads to the PTO shaft with a dynamometer. As the PTO power and engine speed increased, the fuel consumption increased. The increasing rate of fuel consumption with increasing engine speed tended to rise as the PTO power was reduced. When no load was applied, the fuel consumption with the maximum engine speed was 3.7 times as large as that with the minimum engine speed. The fuel consumption per unit PTO power ranged from 300 to 1,200mL/kW·h and became minimum when loads corresponding to 70% of the maximum power were applied at each engine speed. The net fuel consumption per unit PTO power (the value obtained by deducting the fuel consumption under no load from the fuel consumption under load) ranged from 210 to 260mL/kW·h, indicating little difference among different operating conditions.
