Major causes of failure during harvesting in sugarcane chopper harvester machine

Evaluation of maintenance strategies is an issue which must widely be considered. This paper describes failure rate, mean time between failures (MTBF) and availability analysis for Austoft 7000 sugarcane harvesters series used in agro-industries in southwestern Iran. Sugarcane harvester was divided into three subsystems and the failures were studied for 1800 working hours. The failure rate of subsystems including hydraulic, mechanical and electrical were calculated 0.087, 0.052 and 0.012 h-1, respectively and the total failure rate was 0.15 h-1. MTBF after 1800 working hours were obtained 11.46 h, 19.35 h and 85.71 h for the aforementioned subsystems and machine MTBF was 6.64 h. Among the three studied subsystems, hydraulic with maximum failure rate and minimum MTBF and electrical subsystem with minimum failure rate and maximum MTBF were recognized as the most unreliable and reliable subsystems respectively. Moreover, availability analysis showed availability for hydraulic, mechanical and electrical subsystems were 85%, 90% and 98%, respectively. However, total machine availability was 76%

Remote sensing for crop residue cover recognition: A review

Nowadays, using of conservation tillage instead of conventional tillage has been changing attitudes from conventional agriculture to sustainable agriculture. The tillage method affects directly soil and water quality. Actions relative to optimized agricultural management such as conservation tillage methods has adopted at recent years by agronomists and agricultures, due to agricultural and environment advantages. These advantages consist of soil and water quality improving, wind and water erosion prevention, evaporation reduction, soil surface temperature reduction, greenhouse gases reduction, fuel consumption reduction, and etc. In conversation tillage, more than 30% agricultural production residues remain on the ground. For evaluation of residues cover in the fields, information of crop residue obtain from line-transect method. This method has great accuracy, but it is very time consuming and costly for large areas. Remote sensing using satellite information processing can help the researchers to gather the data from the field and the extraction the information. Tillage indices and textural features are two most applicable approach in remote sensing crop residue cover assessment. The aim of this paper was to study of conservation tillage advantages and remote sensing methods to residue cover crop measurement at vast regions through satellite imagery.

Reliability analysis of agricultural machinery: A case study of sugarcane chopper harvester

the performance of agricultural machines depends on the reliability of the machinery used, the operating environment, the maintenance efficiency, the operating process, the technical expertise of the farmers and etc. As the size and complexity of farm equipment continue to increase, the implications of equipment failure become over more critical. Therefore, reliability analysis is required to identify the bottlenecks in the system and to find the components or subsystems with low reliability for a given designed performance. It is important to select a suitable method for data collection as well as for reliability analysis. This paper presents a case study describing reliability and availability analysis of the sugarcane 7000 series chopper harvester at Hakim Farabi agro- industry in Iran. In this study, the harvester is divided into nine subsystems. The parameters of some probability distributions, such as weibull, exponential and lognormal distributions have been estimated by using ReliaSoft Weibull++6 software. The results of the analysis show that feed rollers and hydraulic subsystems are critical from a reliability point of view, and the wheels subsystem and hydraulic subsystem are critical from an availability point of view. The study also shows that the reliability analysis is very useful for deciding maintenance intervals

Trace Elements Removal from Waster water by Ceratophyllum demersum

Trace element contamination in aquatic ecosystems is one of the most important concerning of environmental health. Submerged aquatic plants can be used for the removal of Trace elements. The aim of this study was to investigate how Ceratophyllum demersum could affect on wastewater quality for recycling the wastewater to reuse for other purposes in agriculture and industrial fields. In this survey, two treatments in four replications were designed. The treatments were included raw municipal wastewater (RMW) and treated municipal wastewater (TMW). The experiment performed in outdoor of Khorasgan University area without aeration through 18 days period. In this study Fe, Zn, Mn, Ni, Pb and Cd were measured in wastewater through experiment. The average of removal efficiency of Fe, Zn, Mn, Ni, Pb and Cd from TMW were 40%, 47.5%, 90.82%, 96.55%, 100% and 100% respectively. Removal efficiency of Fe, Zn, Mn, Ni, Pb and Cd from RMW were 67.5%, 37.5%, 94.21%, 94.21%, 100% and 97.77% respectively. The results indicated that Ceratophyllum demersum had high capabilities to remove trace elements directly from the contaminated water. Therefore it can conclude that Ceratophyllum demersum could be used for refining the wastewater

The Impacts of Nanoclay on Sandy Soil Stability and Atmospheric Dust Control

Wind erosion and dust storms are main issues in arid and semi-arid regions. Application of soil stabilizer on unstable land might be an effective and sustainable strategy in arid and semi-arid countries to minimized harmful effects on environment and human health. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of using nanoclay for increasing soil stability, as a result of increasing in size of soil aggregation, and improving soil water holding capacity, as well as improving soil structure in sandy soil. An experiment was conducted with two treatments (0 and 3000 mg/l nanoclay were uniformly spread on the soil surface) in four replications on sandy soil, in Khara desert, nearly 100 km east of Isfahan, Iran. The annual rainfall is about 68/55 mm, mean annual ET0 is 2800 mm/year, and the elevation is 1450 m above sea level. Amount of soil erosion was measured with different wind velocity (31.0, 55.2 and 67.3 km h−1). An aggregation size and water retention of collected soil samples were measured by sieves and pressure plate, respectively. The results showed that the amount of soil erosion in nanoclay-treated soils was significantly different (P>0.05) in comparison with water-treated (control) soils. The volumetric water content at 100 KPa increased in nanoclay-treated soils compared to control treatment. Results also showed that the proportion of 0.25-2 mm aggregate (macroaggregate) significantly increased in nanoclay-treated soils. Based on aforementioned results, it can be concluded that application of nanoclay on soil surface is able to fix the sand and it has ability to cement the particles to each other, increase aggregation and reduce wind erosion. The results suggested that more attention should be directed towards using nanoclay on soil surface of unstable soil areas. That coild be an option for control of the atmospheric dust

The Impacts of Nanoclay on Sandy Soil Stability and Atmospheric Dust Control

Wind erosion and dust storms are main issues in arid and semi-arid regions. Application of soil stabilizer on unstable land might be an effective and sustainable strategy in arid and semi-arid countries to minimized harmful effects on environment and human health. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of using nanoclay for increasing soil stability, as a result of increasing in size of soil aggregation, and improving soil water holding capacity, as well as improving soil structure in sandy soil. An experiment was conducted with two treatments (0 and 3000 mg/l nanoclay were uniformly spread on the soil surface) in four replications on sandy soil, in Khara desert, nearly 100 km east of Isfahan, Iran. The annual rainfall is about 68/55 mm, mean annual ET0 is 2800 mm/year, and the elevation is 1450 m above sea level. Amount of soil erosion was measured with different wind velocity (31.0, 55.2 and 67.3 km h−1). An aggregation size and water retention of collected soil samples were measured by sieves and pressure plate, respectively. The results showed that the amount of soil erosion in nanoclay-treated soils was significantly different (P>0.05) in comparison with water-treated (control) soils. The volumetric water content at 100 KPa increased in nanoclay-treated soils compared to control treatment. Results also showed that the proportion of 0.25-2 mm aggregate (macroaggregate) significantly increased in nanoclay-treated soils. Based on aforementioned results, it can be concluded that application of nanoclay on soil surface is able to fix the sand and it has ability to cement the particles to each other, increase aggregation and reduce wind erosion. The results suggested that more attention should be directed towards using nanoclay on soil surface of unstable soil areas. That coild be an option for control of the atmospheric dust

Is strategic planning relevant to non-governmental universities; Experiences from Islamic Azad University, Iran

AbstractStrategic planning in turbulent and changing environments is always in debt. The aim is investigating application of strategic planning models to a great non-governmental university over Iran. Methodology was a R&D in two phases (a- comparative research for reviewing experiences of other universities through the world and b- designing and developing a comprehensive model relevant and fit for the circumstances of non-governmental universities in Iran. The strategic planning team involved key stakeholders like groups of managers, staff and also graduate student's representatives via Focus Discussion Groups to develop important organizational identities as well as strategic components; Mission, Values and Vision

The Taste of Waste: The Edge of Eggshell Over Calcium Carbonate in Acrylonitrile Butadiene Rubber

Rubber technology experiences a new age by the use of biowaste or natural fillers. In this regard, taking properties of reinforcing agents from biowaste fillers remains as the challenging matter. Chicken eggshell (ES) biowaste has recently been introduced to substitute calcium carbonate (CaCO3) duo to its superior properties and low price. In this work, composites based on acrylonitrile butadiene rubber (NBR) reinforced with ES and CaCO3 microfillers at various loading levels were prepared and characterized. To improve the interactions between fillers and the NBR matrix, ES and CaCO3 were surface-functionalized using a terpolymer, namely poly(vinyl 2-pyrrolidone-co-maleic acid-co-acrylic acid). Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) were used to characterize the modified fillers. The incorporation of the functionalized fillers resulted in a significant rise in the maximum torque according to the rheometric measurements. The Young’s modulus of the ES-based and CaCO3-based compounds showed a mild improvement over a wide range of filler contents. The elongation at break of the NBR composites, however, was dependent on the filler content. This work provides exciting opportunities for the design of novel and innovative coupling agents to be used in rubber applications. © 2019, The Author(s)

Efficiency of Garnet Mineral Used in Three-layer Filters to Remove Turbidity and Biological Organisms in Isfahan Water Treatment Plant

It is essential to use new technologies in water treatment plants to reach high quality potable water. The three-layer filter is one such new technology. In this paper, we will present the results of a laboratory investigation on the pilot scale to evaluate the performance of mineral garnet in multi-layer filters and to compare it with the two-layer blank filter in the removal of turbidity and biological organisms. All experiments were performed using standard methods and the results were evaluated by statistical tests. In the good padding situation and when using water and air backwash system, the removal efficiencies obtained by the multi-layered filter for turbidity, diatome, algae, and nematode were 92.4, 97.8, 97.6, 94.4, and 96.5%, respectively. The removal efficiencies achieved by the two-layer blank filter were 88.8, 85.2, 86.7, 80.5, and 72.1%, respectively. Water and wastewater companies, consultants and manufacturers are recommended to consider the multi-media filters as a preferrable alternative for designing new water treatment plants or for renewing existing plants