Evaluation of some effective parameters in performance of a helical two-sided manure distributor

Organic manures play an important role in improvement of soil fertility, increasing of crop yield and quality. The beneficial advantages of manure depend firstly on the method of spreading. Usually current manure spreaders cannot broadcast manures with different moisture contents and have non-uniform application rate. So the main objective of this research is performance evaluation of a new helical two-sided manure distributor that would be capable to spread manure at different moisture contents with long distribution width in uniform patterns. Experimental evaluation of the machine performance at two moisture content of manure in three forward velocities and three rotational speeds of drum showed that the moisture content of manure and rotational speed of drums had significantly effects (p = 0.01) on the distribution width and uniformity of the distribution pattern. The maximum distribution width of the machine at moisture content of 23% w.b. and 54% w.b. and in 1000 rpm rotational speed of drum were 19.3 m and 23.3 m respectively. Results indicated that the manure distribution uniformity increased by increasing the manure moisture and the distribution pattern of machine has an acceptable correlation with oval distribution pattern (p = 0.05).