Airless Wheel Assembly Corrugation for Irrigation Ruts
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Solution Overview
Problem
Movable agricultural irrigation systems often create deep ruts in fields, leading to wheel sticking and crop damage, and shifting the center pivot point to minimize ruts results in further crop destruction and misalignment.
Innovation Solution
A wheel assembly with outwardly protruding spokes and a tire or track with rigid and flexible sections that form a corrugated path, improving traction and reducing rut formation by aligning with previously created soil patterns and retaining soil within the path.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If conventional smooth wheels are used, then the wheel assembly can move across the field, but the wheels create deep ruts and become stuck after multiple passes
Solution Approach 1:
The wheel covering is divided into multiple rigid sections spaced apart by flexible sections. The rigid sections (treads) engage with the soil to create controlled corrugations, while the flexible sections allow the covering to conform to the ground surface. This segmentation enables the wheel to break through the contradiction by creating a patterned interaction with the soil that prevents rut formation while maintaining movement capability.
Solution Approach 2:
Different sections of the wheel covering have different properties: rigid sections provide structural support and soil engagement, while flexible sections provide conformity and cushioning. This local differentiation allows the wheel to simultaneously achieve firm ground engagement for traction and adaptability to terrain variations, resolving the contradiction between movement ease and rut prevention.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If the center pivot point is shifted to create a new path, then rut formation is reduced, but additional crops are destroyed and wheel misalignment occurs
Solution Approach 1:
The wheel assembly creates its own beneficial interaction pattern with the soil through the corrugation-forming rigid sections. Instead of requiring external intervention (shifting the pivot point) to avoid ruts, the wheel's own structure generates a self-regulating soil interaction pattern that prevents rut formation in place, thereby preserving crops and maintaining system alignment.
3Ease of operation
If conventional wheels are used, then the irrigation system can traverse the field, but the wheels lose traction in soft or muddy ground
Solution Approach 1:
The rigid sections of the wheel covering preemptively engage with the soil surface to create corrugations before the wheel encounters difficult terrain. This preliminary soil interaction prepares the ground surface and establishes a traction pattern that enhances grip in soft or muddy conditions, resolving the contradiction between easy traversal and reliable traction.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The wheel assembly reduces wear on the field, enhances traction, and minimizes rut formation by creating a pattern that improves wheel alignment and soil retention, allowing for efficient irrigation system movement without damaging crops.
Implementation Method 1
The rigid sections are pressed by the spokes into the soil to form peaks and valleys
Implementation Method 2
a set of flexible sections that flex inwardly towards the recesses between the spokes
Implementation Method 3
the rigid and flexible sections of the covering line up with the previously created peaks and valleys in the soil to greatly improve the traction of the wheel assembly
Data Source
AI summary
A wheel assembly for traversing a path along a ground surface having a layer of soil, the wheel assembly comprising a central support and an airless flexible covering mounted on the central support and having a plurality of rigid sections and a plurality of flexible sections. The outwardly protruding spokes urge the rigid sections into the layer of soil when the rigid sections contact the ground surface. The flexible sections flex inwardly when the flexible sections contact the ground surface so that the rigid sections and the flexible sections cooperatively form a corrugated pattern in the ground surface without urging the soil to side margins of the airless flexible covering, the corrugated pattern having a plurality of valleys formed by the rigid sections and a plurality of peaks formed by the flexible sections.