The influence of climatic conditions on the efficiency of using the machine and tractor fleet in the agro-industrial complex

The influence of climatic factors and weather phenomena on people and machines began to be studied at the beginning of the 20th century. One of the pioneers of this field was the Swedish physicist and polar researcher Gesta Bodman, who proposed a method for assessing the severity of the climate in a scoring system. Later, Soviet researcher P.I. Koch continued his research in this direction and introduced the concept of "technical rigidity" of the climate and proposed the concept of dividing the territory of the USSR into five zones of technical rigidity of the climate. The purpose of the study is to assess the operating conditions of the tractor fleet of the agro-industrial complex of the Russian Federation in relation to the conditions of technical rigidity of the cold climate. The study is based on the P.I. Koch method of assessing the cold climate technical rigidity. The distribution of tractors by cold climate severity zones was determined and the consequences of the negative impact of climatic factors and weather events on the operational efficiency was studied. It was found that, according to official data, the agro-industrial complex of the Russian Federation had 214.8 thousand tractors of all traction classes as of the end of 2022. Of these, only about 21% are operated in conditions close to normal. The rest of the tractor fleet is located on the farms in moderately harsh, harsh, very harsh and most harsh climate zones. The climatic factors and weather phenomena that have the strongest impact on the operation of the components and aggregates of tractors and machines primarily include air temperature, humidity and wind speed. The conducted studies indicate the serious scale of the problems associated with the winter operation of the machine and tractor fleet. Approximate calculations of the cost of fuel overruns associated with power losses in the tractor's engine and transmission indicate the need for further research in the field of ensuring optimal temperatures in components and assemblies of tractors and machines at low ambient temperatures.