Performance of lugged cage wheel for wetland cultivation

Rice is a major food grain crop grown in North-eastern Himalayan region of India with varying level of mechanization. Rice field remains wet and loose for a considerable period of growing season. Land preparation of rice field is one of the critical operations both in terms of timeliness and energy requirement. The losses up to 70%-80% of input power are reported while negotiating wetland terrain by tractors or power tillers, particularly in difficult terrain. This paper described the attempts made to address the issue of wetland traction primarily relevant to mechanization of rice cultivation in North-eastern Himalayan region of India. There is a variety of design of cage wheels used on power tillers with varying levels of performances based on the soil conditions. An innovative lug of split type has been developed, tested and compared with non-split lugs of identical contact area in the sandy loam soils of wetland rice fields of the region. Cage wheel lugs interact with the soil and thrust is generated to move the power tiller forward. The strength of supporting soil and area of contact governs the generated thrust. In general, the pull developed by cage wheel is positively correlated with area of interaction especially in better soil condition. Release of loose soil trapped beneath the cage wheel lugs, so as to bring hard layers of soil in contact with the interacting lug surface, is attempted through split lugs instead of solid lugs (non-split). A set of lugs with split (S) and non-split (NS) having 3 varying sizes (8000, 12000 and 16000 mm2 surface area) were fabricated as per suitability of a typical walking type tractor (power tiller). Each set of lugs were fitted on cage wheel frame at 450 angular spacing for testing its field performance at two levels of soil moisture contents (23% and 36%). During experiments the performance enhancement of split lugs was found better in moist (36%) soil than a relatively dry (23%) soil. Newly designed lug fitted power tiller operation resulted higher (0.052 ha/h) field capacity (about 17% higher than the identical non-split lug). The fuel consumptions of split lugs were found less compared to non-split lugs of all sizes. Split lug cage wheel fitted power tiller operation resulted about 27% less wheel slip associated with about 14% saving of fuel (L/ha) in comparison of non-split lug in moist field

Down Draft Gasification Modelling and Experimentation of Some Indigenous Biomass for Thermal Applications

AbstractFive locally available biomassesnamely Bamboo (Banbusea Tulda), Gulmohar (Delonix regia), Neem (Melia Azedarach L), Dimaru (Ficus lepidosa wall), and Shisham (Delbergia sissoo) had been characterized with CHN analysis. The elemental characterization results were used to model a downdraft gasification (10 kWthermal) process in terms of producer gas composition. A thermodynamic equilibrium modelling had been presentedfor a throated downdraft gasifier, based on equilibrium constants with appropriate assumptions. The gas compositions of the above bio-fuels had been studied with varying moisture content from (0-30) percentage at a gasification temperature of 850°C. Highest calorific value (18.40MJ kg-1) was obtained for bamboo chip with fixed carbon 48.69 percentages. Gulmohar yielded maximum value of Hydrogen (24.50%) in downdraft gasification among all fuels for same moisture. Bamboo gasification gave overall best quality of producer gas for same moisture. The compositions of producer gas thus generated from these five woody biomasses had been determined by gas chromatography analysis. The results obtained from equilibrium modelling study were fairly in good agreement with experimental results

A model-based approach for multiple QoS in scheduling: from models to implementation

Meeting multiple Quality of Service (QoS) requirements is an important factor in the success of complex software systems. This paper presents an automated, model-based scheduler synthesis approach for scheduling application software tasks to meet multiple QoS requirements. As a first step, it shows how designers can meet deadlock-freedom and timeliness requirements, in a manner that (i) does not over-provision resources, (ii) does not require architectural changes to the system, and that (iii) leaves enough degrees of freedom to pursue further properties. A major benefit of our synthesis methodology is that it increases traceability, by linking each scheduling constraint with a specific pair of QoS property and underlying platform execution model, so as to facilitate the validation of the scheduling constraints and the understanding of the overall system behaviour, required to meet further QoS properties. The paper shows how the methodology is applied in practice and also presents a prototype implementation infrastructure for executing an application on top of common operating systems, without requiring modifications of the latter

Phosphorus recovery as struvite from farm, municipal and industrial waste: feedstock suitability, methods and pre-treatments

Global population growth requires intensification of agriculture, for which a sustainable supply of phosphorus (P) is essential. Since natural P reserves are diminishing, recovering P from wastes and residues is an increasingly attractive prospect, particularly as technical and economic potential in the area is growing. In addition to providing phosphorus for agricultural use, precipitation of P from waste residues and effluents lessens their nutrient loading prior to disposal. This paper critically reviews published methods for P recovery from waste streams (municipal, farm and industrial) with emphasis on struvite (MgNH4PO46H2O) crystallisation, including pre-treatments to maximise recovery. Based on compositional parameters of a range of wastes, a Feedstock Suitability Index (FSI) was developed as a guide to inform researchers and operators of the relative potential for struvite production from each waste

Crop residue biomass for decentralized electrical power generation in rural areas (part 1): Investigation of spatial availability

Spatial assessments of crop residue biomass and its power potential at village level in Sonitpur district of Assam, India is presented in this paper. Recent IRS P6 LISS-III remote sensing data of the study area is analyzed in GIS environment to map crop areas and subsequently residue biomass availability at village level. Altogether 16 different types of crop residues are identified in the district with rice crop as dominant residue. About 0.17 million tonnes of crop residue biomass, having about 17 MW potential power, is spatially distributed in the rural areas of the district. Village level biomass power mapping is done assuming combustion route of decentralized power generation. Considering the acute shortage of grid connected power supply in the study area, the decentralized crop residue based power generation could be an attractive option. At individual level, thermal power plant up to 72 kW could be possible to cater the essential power need of the villager.Crop residue biomass IRS P6 LISS-III GIS

The use of Koroch seed oil methyl ester blends as fuel in a diesel engine

An experimental investigation was carried out on a small direct injection (DI) diesel engine, fuelling the engine with 10% (B10), 20% (B20), 30% (B30) and 40% (B40) blending of Koroch seed oil methyl ester (KSOME) with diesel. The performance and combustion characteristics of the engine at various loads are compared and analyzed. The results showed higher brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) and lower brake thermal efficiency (BTE) for the KSOME blends. The engine indicated power (IP) was more for the blends up to B30, but found to be reduced for the blend B40 when compared to that of diesel. The engine combustion parameters such as pressure crank angle diagram, peak pressure, time of occurrence of peak pressure, net heat-release rate, cumulative heat release, ignition delay and combustion duration were computed. The KSOME blends exhibited similar combustion trend with diesel. However, the blends showed an early start of combustion with shorter ignition delay period. The study reveals the suitability of KSOME blends up to B30 as fuel for a diesel engine mainly used in generating sets and the agricultural applications in India without any significant drop in engine performance.Bio-diesel Koroch seed oil Combustion Diesel engine

Overcoming socio-cultural resistance towards biogas technology

Cultural taboos are often described as an insurmountable barrier to adoption of domestic toilet-linked anaerobic digesters (TLADs). This study provides a better understanding of the socio-cultural resistance towards TLADs through findings from interviews with households in Assam, and demonstrates that this resistance can be negotiable in certain circumstances. It highlights various pathways to adoption of TLADs and suggests ways in which the implementation of the national biogas programmes could become more effective

Assessment of hydropower potential using GIS and hydrological modeling technique in Kopili River basin in Assam (India)

A hilly watershed in Kopili River basin in Assam (India) was considered for assessment of hydropower potential using spatial tool (GIS) and hydrological model (SWAT2000). The available data related to topography, soil, land use, weather and discharge pertaining to the study watershed were used to characterize the watershed. The characterization was required for water resources hence hydropower assessment. The hydrology of the study watershed was simulated through the model. The prediction accuracy of the model was confirmed through three well known efficiency criteria viz., coefficient of determination (R2 = 0.70), Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency (E = 0.64) and Index of agreement (d = 0.91). A total of 107 sites on 9 streams could be identified as potential location for hydropower generation in the study watershed using the model outputs. Distributed power availability through micro units (Hydrological modeling Soil and water assessment tool Hydropower

Not Available

Not AvailableA study was conducted to examine the impact of land-use on soil properties in humid subtropical India. Soil samples were collected from two depths 0–20 cm (surface layer) and 20–40 cm (sub-surface layer) of soil from four land-uses (viz. natural forest, tea plantation, horticultural system and agriculture) located on varying slopes and examined for particle size distribution, pH, organic carbon (OC), exchangeable cations (Ca, Mg, Na and K), microbial biomass carbon (MBC) and microbial biomass nitrogen (MBN). There were significant difference in sand, silt and clay with land-uses in the surface and sub-surface layers except the clay fraction in the sub-surface layer in all the land-uses. OC (2.17%) was greatest in forest soil, followed by soil from horticultural system, tea plantation and agriculture. The greatest Ca (3.8 cmol/kg) and K (0.7 cmol/kg) were found in the forest, whereas Mg (1.5 cmol/kg) was greatest in horticultural system. The MBC and MBN in the surface layer were highest (237.6 and 80.4 mg/kg, respectively) in the forest and lowest (135.0 and 46.8 mg/ kg, respectively) in the agriculture, which was subjected to intense human activities. OC, MBC and MBN declined with increasing soil depth in all the land-uses.Not Availabl

Not Available

Not AvailableA study was conducted to examine the impact of land-use on soil properties in humid subtropical India. Soil samples were collected from two depths 0–20 cm (surface layer) and 20–40 cm (sub-surface layer) of soil from four land-uses (viz. natural forest, tea plantation, horticultural system and agriculture) located on varying slopes and examined for particle size distribution, pH, organic carbon (OC), exchangeable cations (Ca, Mg, Na and K), microbial biomass carbon (MBC) and microbial biomass nitrogen (MBN). There were significant difference in sand, silt and clay with land-uses in the surface and sub-surface layers except the clay fraction in the sub-surface layer in all the land-uses. OC (2.17%) was greatest in forest soil, followed by soil from horticultural system, tea plantation and agriculture. The greatest Ca (3.8 cmol/kg) and K (0.7 cmol/kg) were found in the forest, whereas Mg (1.5 cmol/kg) was greatest in horticultural system. The MBC and MBN in the surface layer were highest (237.6 and 80.4 mg/kg, respectively) in the forest and lowest (135.0 and 46.8 mg/ kg, respectively) in the agriculture, which was subjected to intense human activities. OC, MBC and MBN declined with increasing soil depth in all the land-uses.Not Availabl