Abstract
In the study, the cone index, the cohesion and the internal friction angle of soil were measured before and after tillage in order to suggest relative improvement in soil properties by comparing the two measured values before and after tillage. The tillage methods tested in the study were five combinations of plowing and rotovating; one plow tillage operation, one plow followed by one rotary, one plow followed by two rotary, one rotary without plow and two rotary without plow. The experiments were performed in a soil bin in Sunggyunkwan Univ. and in four selected test fields in Yeoju, Seodun-Dong, Suwon (especially, two different fields) and Chungju. In general, the internal friction angle and cohesion of soil increased with the increase of soil compaction. After applying the tillage operations, the internal friction angle reduced by 14 degree and the cohesion decreased up to about $2.2N/cm^2$ on the soil bin in comparison with those before tillage. The two values, however, reduced by 9 degree and up to about $1.0N/cm^2$ on the tested fields. The CIs for all the tillage operations on the soil bin and on 4 different test fields were decreased by 800 kPa in comparison with those before tillage. The best combination of tillage operations for decreasing the CIs of soil was one plow operation followed by one rotary. The CIs for one plow operation followed by two rotary were slightly higher than that for one plow operation followed by one rotary because one plow operation followed by two rotary crushed down the soil excessively, so that the porosity of soil decreased.
