Measuring Mechanical Properties and Simulating the Creep Behavior of Wild Cane Stem using Burger-Voigt Model

IntroductionKnowledge of mechanical and viscoelastic properties of agricultural material will be helpful in the transportation and processing of these materials. Giant reed grass, also known as wild cane, is a tall, perennial, bamboo-like, grass that grows in wet areas.  The giant reed grass can flourish in a wide variety of soils, including coarse sands, gravelly soil, heavy clay, and river sediment.  This grass attains heights of 7 m and once established the stems can reach a thickness close to 3 cm.  The stems of giant reed grass are used for different purposes. Traditionally the stems are used in the villages for fencing, roofing, and producing handcrafts. The modern uses of the giant reed stems include plywood, composites panels and paper production. The giant reed stems are not uniform and are made from many nodes. The number of nodes and the distance between nodes can affect the mechanical properties of the stems. In order to attain a suitable use of the stems in various industries, the physical and mechanical properties of the stems must be determined. Knowledge of mechanical and viscoelastic properties of agricultural material will be helpful in transportation and processing of these materials. The purpose of this research was to determine some relevant mechanical properties of the stems of giant reed grass with different nodes and moisture contents.Materials and MethodsIn this research, different mechanical and viscoelastic tests were performed on the stems of cane at various levels of moisture and number of nodes. The Burger-Voigt model with different number of elements was also used to model the creep behaviors of the stems. The cane stems were cut and divided to three groups of two, four, and six-node stems. The moisture contents of the stems were adjusted to three levels of 30, 40 and 50% (w.b.). After preparing the stems the mechanical tests were performed using an Instron testing machine with a three-point support. The creep tests were done by hanging a 10 kg weight at the middle of each stem. The experiments were done using factorial tests based on completely randomized design. The Young module, toughness, and the yield points of the stems were measured by the three-point method. These parameters were obtained from the stress-strain curves of the three-point compression bending tests. The results showed that the Young module was affected by both moisture and the number of nodes, but there were no interaction effects. The creeps of the stems under 10 kg loading were modeled using 3 to 5 elements Burger-Voigt models. In these models a combination of springs and dashpots are used to represent the stems. The curve fitting was performed using the MATLAB software and the goodness of fitness was verified using the fitted curves and calculating the coefficient of determinations.Results and DiscussionThe results by investigating the graphs and the ANOVA tests showed that the Young module was significantly affected by both moisture and the number of nodes. The obtained Young module for cane stem ranged from 572-1268 MPa. Both yield point and toughness were affected by both moisture and the number of nodes and their values were 65-250 N and 0.016-0.132 J.m-3, respectively. The creep test results indicated that the maximum deformation and maximum time for of the interaction of the two factors was insignificant. The maximum deformations ranged from 2.1-42.5 mm, and the maximum time for reaching the final deformation was 12.5-75 minutes for various moistures and the number of nodes combinations and showed that the 5-element Burger was best for explaining the viscoelastic behavior of cane stems (R2>0.97).ConclusionsIn this research, some mechanical properties of the giant reed grass stems were measured and the creep behavior of the stem was modeled using 3-5 elements Burger-Voigt models. The results indicated a decrease in the Young module of the stems with increase with moisture content and increase in the Young module with increase in the number of nodes. On the other hand, the elongation of the stems increased with both number of the nodes and the level of moisture. The 5-element Burger-Voigt model was best fitted to the creep data

Investigating the Mechanical Properties and Degradability of Bioplastics Made from Wheat Straw Cellulose and Date Palm Fiber

During the past two decades, the use of bioplastics as an alternative to regular plastics has received much attention in many different industries. The mechanical and degradable properties of bioplastic are important for their utilization. In this research cellulose of wheat straw and glycerol were mixed by different weight ratios and then reinforced by using date palm fibers. To prepare the bioplastic plates, the materials were poured in molds and pressed by means of a hydraulic press and simultaneously heating of the molds. The experiments were performed based on a 3×3 factorial design with three levels: 50%, 60% and 70% of wheat cellulose and three types of reinforcement methods, namely: no-reinforcement, network reinforcement and parallel string reinforcement. The effect of the two factors on tensile strength, tensile strain, bending strength, modulus of elasticity and modulus of bending were investigated. The results indicated that the two factors and their interactions had significant effects on the mentioned properties of bioplastics (at α=0.05 level) . The comparison of the means of the tests showed that the network reinforcement type with 50% cellulose had the highest tensile and bending strengths with 1992.02 and 28.71 MPa, respectively. The maximum modulus of elasticity and modulus bending were 40.4 and 2.3 MPa, respectively for parallel string arrangement and 70% of cellulose. The degradability tests of bioplastic using a fistulated sheep indicated that with increasing the percentage of cellulose, the degradability rate deceased. The maximum degradability rate, after 48 h holding in the sheep rumen, was 74% that belonged to bioplastics with 50% cellulose. The degradability data were well fitted to a mathematical model (R2=0.97)

Investigating Some Characteristics of Biocomposites Prepared from Chemically Purified Date Palm Fibers

During the past two decades the use of lignocellouse fibers in reinforcing composites has attracted much research activities. In the present work, date palm fiber was used for production of composites compatible withliving environment. The fibers were pre-treated chemically to remove impurities. In order to verify and compare the effectiveness of the pretreatment methods, lignin, ash, moisture adsorption, diameter and tensile strength of the raw and treated fibers were considered in all determinations. Some chemical contents of the treated fibers were also estimated by FTIR method. The heating characteristics of the fibers were evaluated using simultaneous thermal analysis (SAT) technique. The treated fibers were mixed with HDPE by mass proportions of 10, 20 and 30% of the fibers in twotypes of fine and coarse sizes. Composite flower pots were prepared from the formulations by extrusion process. The mechanical properties of the composites including tensile strength, modulus of elasticity, strain, and impact strength were measured by standard ASTM methods. Statistical analysis of the data revealed that the treated fibers had smaller diameters containing lower levels of lignin and ash though having significantly higher tensile strength, heat resistance and moisture adsorption. The results also indicated that by increase in fibre size the tensile strength, modulus of elasticity and moisture adsorption of the composites are increased and their strain and impact resistance are decreased. The composites prepared using fine fibers showed higher tensile strength, modulus of elasticity and impact strength but their moisture adsorption and elongation were significantly lower

Investigating and modeling the pyrolysis kinetic of leaves and stems of pistachio trees for biofuel production

Introduction The lignocelluloses materials have high potential for producing various types of biofuels. These materials include various parts of plants, especially leaves and stems that are left without a specific usage after annual pruning. These residues can be used through slow or fast pyrolysis process for production of liquid and gaseous biofuels. The slow pyrolysis is taking place at temperatures below 500°C while fast pyrolysis process takes place at a temperature above 700°C. Various studies on production of biofuels from plant residues have shown that the temperature, heating rate and the resident time of pyrolysis process are the main factors that affect the final product quality. At present time, in Iran, there are more than 360 thousands hectares of pistachio growing fields which annually produce over 215 thousands metric tons residues which are mainly leaves and stems. The main objective of this study was to measure the heating properties of the powders prepared from the leaves and the stem of pistachio trees. These properties include higher heating value (HHV), lower heating value (LHV) and thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) of the powders. Then the powders were separately pyrolysed and the kinetic of the pyrolysis process for producing charcoal from them was investigated. Materials and Methods In this research, leaves and stems of pistachio trees were initially analyzed to determine their chemical constituents including moisture content, volatile compounds, carbon (C), hydrogen (H), nitrogen (N), sulfur (S) and oxygen (O) content. Using these constituents the height heating value and low heating value for the leaves and the stems were determined. The thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) of the powders was made to select a proper heating temperature for pyrolysis of the powders. In each experiment about 10 g of powder powders were pyrolyzed to produce char. Based on TGA results, the pyrolysis experiments were performed at 350, 400, 450 and 500°C with 30 minutes residence time. The instantaneous amount (in decimal) of the produced gas (M) and char (Ms) as a function of time (t) was modeled using the following equations: For each experiment B is a constant value and is represented by: Where Ea is the activation energy, R is universal gas constant, T is the temperature of the experiment and A is the pre-exponential constant. By having M or Ms at different times (t), the parameters of A, B and Ea were estimated using the curve fitting tool box of the MATLAB® software. Results and Discussion The results of chemical analysis indicated that the leaves powders contained 1.5% N, 42.1% C, 5.5% H, 0.4% S and 48.3% O while the stem samples contained 0.5% N, 46.5% C, 6.1% H, 0.2% S and 44.6% O. Higher amount of carbon and hydrogen in the stem leaves indicates that the stem should have higher energy content. In fact, the calculated high and low heating values for leaves were 17.23 and 16.03 MJ.kg-1, and for the stems were 18.91 and 17.59 MJ.kg-1, respectively which comply with the predicted results from chemical analysis of the powders. The TGA test results indicated that the initial weight loss took place up to 270°C for the stems powder and up to 220°C for leaves powders. This weight loss was due to loss of moisture and volatile compounds. The actual degradation temperature for the stem powders ranged from 300 to 500°C while for the leaves was from 350 to 600°C. The results of pyrolysis experiments indicated that the pyrolysis of stems took place faster than leaves. The pyrolysis time was 10 to 15 min for leaves and 5 to 10 min for stems. The resulting char for pyrolysis of stem was 30% and for stems were 40% of the original materials. The kinetic of pyrolysis was modeled using one-step global model for production of char and gas. The experimental data were fitted to the used model with high degrees of accuracy (R2>0.99). The model parameters, namely activation energy and frequency factors were 10.70 kJ.mol-1, and 0.047 s-1 for stems and 21.72 kJ.mol-1 and 0.312 s-1, respectively. Conclusions In general, both HHV and LHV of the stems were higher than those of leaves due to higher carbon content of the stems. The TG curves indicated the pyrolysis time of stems was shorter than that of leaves. The leaves yielded 40% char while the stem yielded 30%

Performance Evaluation of a Solar Dryer with Finny, Perforated Absorber Plate Collector Equipped with an Air Temperature Control System for Dill Drying

Dill is one of the most important plants in the world because of its medicinal properties and it is widely used as a vegetable in the most parts of Iran. In the present study a new solar dryer with finny, perforated absorber plate collector was utilized to dry fresh dill. The dryer was comprised of a solar collector, a product container, a fan and a drying air temperature controller. The temperature controller was used as a control system to regulate the drying air temperature. Thermal performance of the dryer with finny, perforated solar collector was compared with that of a simple flat plate solar collector at different airflow rates. The effect of drying air temperature at three levels (45, 55 and 65 °C), the product size at three lengths (3, 5 and 7 cm) and two different modes of drying (mixed and indirect) on the dryer performance was investigated. The results showed that the finny, perforated absorber plate solar collector could improve the thermal efficiency about 11% in comparison with the flat plate collector and the highest thermal efficiency was achieved at the maximum airflow rate. Meanwhile, increasing the air temperature and decreasing the product size caused a significant reduction in energy consumption. Solar fraction reduced by increasing the air temperature. Finally a maximum dryer efficiency of 70% was observed at air temperature of 65 oC, product size of 3 cm with mixed mode drying