Identification of the resistive force of the tool on the basis of georadar measurements

. In Europe, the area of soil degraded by over-compaction is estimated at 33 million hectares. The aim of the research was the potential working resistance of the tool in the soil medium based on the analysis of the GPR echogram. The scope of the research included strain gauge measurement of the tool working resistance force in the TUZ. The experiment included several ranges of tool operating depth, the limit of which was tractor drive wheel slippage exceeding 50%. The measurement of compactness was carried out in the trace of the tractor drive wheels at intervals resulting from subsoil variability; the depth of soil penetration was 0.8m. GPR scanning using the reflexive profiling method was carried out in the tractor wheel track, which was at the same time the footprint of the measurement of the working resistance force. Comparison of the obtained characteristics, i.e. working resistance force and echogram gave satisfactory results, however, it should be noted that their use is limited to a homogenous soil environment. In case of changes in the soil environment, the measuring system should be calibrated each time, so that the GPR echogram is adequate to the generated resistance force of the tool or soil compactness determined with the penetrometer. It was observed that: a) the number of passes less than four influenced only the compaction of topsoil up to the level of 0.2m, whereas with a greater number of passes this influence was also transferred to lower layers of the soil profile, b) each of the methods showed on average over 2 times increase in compactness between the profile of non-compacted soil and that of soil after eight passes by the tractor wheels.