Projeto e fabricação de uma célula de carga para medir esforço de tração em um trator agrícola

Abstract

The measurement of the elongation of materials, a technique known as extensometry, is based on the properties of materials, which have a certain linearity in their relationship between applied stress and the corresponding deformation. Extensometers are transducers responsible for transforming variations in the length of the material into variations in the electrical resistance to which they are composed, this variation in resistance can be later interpreted by a data logger (device for reading and recording data), this information, by turn, can be transformed into an equivalent force. With population growth and consequent increase in demand for food production, extensometry plays a role in monitoring actions taken by tractors and agricultural implements through the drawbar. The present work aims to design and manufacture a load cell capable of determining the force exerted on the drawbar of an agricultural tractor through extensometry techniques. The main line of the methodology applied included the conception of a support responsible for fixing the load cell containing the extensometer, the manufacture of this support proposal, the instrumentation of the load cell and its calibration, in addition to the tests that will be responsible for the validation of the project, namely, the traction test with the tractor and the field evaluation. In view of this, it was verified that, satisfactorily, the present work successfully achieved the proposed objective, which establishes the manufacture of a load cell and all physical support attached to it for measuring the axial effort to the traction bar of an agricultural tractor, and thus provide structure for future work regarding the performance of tractors. Keywords: Extensometry, Drawbar, Agricultural Tractor.