A Theoretical Study on the use of Passive Soil Resistance in Winch Anchor Design

This paper describes work being carried out to determine the length and depth of a cutting blade required to support a rescue vehicle fitted with a winch. Analytical work described relates mostly to the suitability of blade used. The design was confined to the case of the wide cutting blade moving in a direction perpendicular to the breadth of the blade because of its two dimensional simplicity. The approach adopted was based on a method already presented for the rapid calculation of passive soil resistance on a plane wide structure extending to the soil surface and having any rake angle as well as a wide range of directions of interface motion

Puddling Efficiency for Rice Root Growth in a Cohesive Soil

A laboratory study was conducted to determine the influence of water-soil ratio on the ease of puddling air-dried aggregates. Soil puddling was carried out using a rotary stirrer simulating the ratio)' motion of a rotary cultivator commonly used in wetland preparation. The stirrer was driven by an electric motor at a speed of 2000 rev/min. Four water-soil ratios were tested at three different stirring times. The results obtained showed that the fastest dispersion of particles resulting in a minimum wet bulk density of 1.23 Mg/m3 , was achieved at a water-soil ratio of 1.2. Increasing the water-soil ratio above this value did not change the wet bulk density value for all stirring times. Increasing the water-soil ratio above 1.0 did not increase the percentage of aggregate breakdown significantly for aggregates below 0.5 mm diameter. The effect of stirring time on the percentage of aggregate breakdown for aggregates below 0.5 mm diameter, however, was significant at all water-soil ratios when the input energy was 0.084 and 0.168 watt-hours

Rate of water absorption by soil clods under confined and unconfined conditions

Experiments were conducted to study the rate of water absorption by clod of different sizes and initial moisture content using the capillarity method. Clods were prepared by molding wet clay soil into cubes for easy contact with the wet surface of a water-conducting material. Prepared samples ex-posed to wetting were examined by cutting 5-mm thick slices, starting the base. For confined conditions, a measured load was applied on every clod tested. The results of the clod-wetting experiments show that the rate of water absorption by capillarity was greatest when clods were initially very dry and that smaller clods tended to absorb water faster than bigger cloths confined. However, confining had no significant effect on absorption when the initial condition was very wet

A width of cut analysis on the performance of a rotary strip tiller

This paper describes a soil bin study on the effect of blade widths upon rotary tiller performance which forms part of the research undertaken by the author on rotary tillage. Blades used were designed and tested at several forward and rotor speed combinations using a single rotor flange. Results obtained for each combination of forward and rotor speed show significant increase in power consumption as cutting width increased. In terms of specific power, however, the wider the cutting widths the lower the specific power values. The highest degree of soil pulverization was caused by the smallest width at the smallest bite length

Electrolytic treatment of latex wastewater

A novel method of latex wastewater treatment was developed based on in-situ hypochlorous acid generation. The hypochlorous acid was generated in an undivided electrolytic cell consisting of two sets of graphite as anode and stainless sheets as cathode. The generated hypochlorous acid served as an oxidizing agent to destroy the organic present in the latex wastewater. For an influent COD concentration of 3,820 mg/L at an initial pH 4.5; current density of 74.5 mA/cm2; sodium chloride content 3% and electrolysis period of 90 min, resulted in the following residual concentration pH 7.3; COD 78 mg/L; BOD5 55 mg/L; TOC 45 mg/L; residual total chlorine 136 mg/L; turbidity 17 NTU and temperature 54°C, respectively. In the case of 2% sodium chloride content for the above, said operating condition resulted in a residual concentration of pH 7; COD 162 mg/L; BOD5 105 mg/L; TOC 90 mg/L; residual total chlorine 122 mg/L; turbidity 26 NTU and temperature 60°C respectively. The energy requirements were found to be 35 and 50 Wh/L while treating 24 L of latex wastewater at 3 and 2% sodium chloride concentration at a current density 74.5 mA/cm2. The observed energy difference was due to the improved conductivity at high sodium chloride content

Energy prediction model for disk plow combined with a rotary blade in wet clay soil

A mathematical model was developed to predict the energy requirement for the combined effect of a disk plow and a rotary blade in clay soil suitable for wet rice cultivation in Malaysia. The developed equations can be used to predict the energy requirements for disk and rotary blade using mathCAD PLUS 6.0 software. The validity of the model was checked via experiments conducted in an indoor soil tank with the usage of an octagonal ring transducer for the disk and a torquemeter for the rotary blade. The variations between experimental and predicted values range from -1.4% to 3.3%

Modification, Test and Evaluation of Manually Operated Drum Type Seeder for Lowland Paddy

An experiment was conducted to improve the performance of the drum type seeder developed by the International Rice Research Institute for low land paddy. The machine was evaluated and compared with the conventional hand seeding method. A seed collector assembly was designed and incorporated to the existing prototype in order to overcome the unwanted seed dropping at the headlands during turning which saved 5-7 kg of seed per hectare. Owing to the incorporation of seed collector assembly, the weight of the seeder increased by 20 percent compared to the previous prototype, but still within the capability of an average size labour.The effective field capacity of machine seeding ranged between 0.12 to 0.15 ha/hr and that of hand broadcasting was 0.22 ha/hr. The partial budget analysis revealed that by using drum type seeder and a rotary type seeder and a rotary type weeder, a farmer could earn a net benefit of US$55.06 per hectare compared to hand seedling followed by hand weeding. The break-even analysis indicated that a farmer having only 0.3 hectare of land could economically afford a drum type seeder and a rotary type weeder

Design of a vacuum seed metering system for kenaf planting

In this study, a vacuum seed metering system was designed and developed based on physical and aerodynamic properties of kenaf seeds (Hibiscus cannabinus L.). The kenaf vacuum seed metering system was evaluated in the laboratory by using kenaf seeds. For laboratory tests, a completely randomized design (CRD) with three replications was chosen. The data were analyzed by Statistical Analysis Software (SAS) program version 9.1 and means separation test were done by using Duncan’s multiple range test (DMRT). The study results showed that the most suitable opening diameter and opening angle for planting kenaf seeds were 2.5 mm and 120°, respectively, which having the minimum missing and multiple indices with optimum quality of feed index

Utilization of and Constraints on Animal Traction in Jigawa State, Nigeria

A survey was carried out to investigate the utilization of and constraints on animal traction in Hadejia Local Government Area of Jigawa State, Nigeria. Farmers having five hectares farm size and below were selected for the study. Farmers were categorized into four (4) groups based on their farm sizes, which are Group I – farmers having farm size equal to or less 1 hectare, Group II – farmers having farm size of 2 hectares, Group III – farmers having farm size between 3-4 hectares, Group IV – farmers having farm size of 5 hectares. Thirty (30) farmers were interviewed in each of the groups. A total of 120 sample data were collected and analysed using simple descriptive statistics. Data on breed types, implement and yoke used, source of the work animals, animal feeds and shelter were collected using structural questionnaire and oral interviews. The results showed that Sokoto Gudali bulls were the popular breed (73.3%) of cattle used by the respondents across the four groups while 26.7% of the respondents used White Fulani bulls. Source of work animals were mostly through personal purchased (45.8%) and loan by State Government (33.4%), while very few farmers acquired by inheritance (20.8%). Eighty percent of the respondents used Emcot and Kazaure animal drawn implement while 20% of the respondents used Arava and Strad. Yoke and rope were the common harness tools having 93.3% of the respondents using them while 6.7% of the respondents used combinations of yoke, rope and chain as harness tools. Work animals were training between 4-6 weeks before fully use for farm operations. Feeding of animals was mainly on free range during the rainy season and crop residues during the dry season. The constraints reported by the farmers include lack of funds, inadequate formal education, limited feed resources, few implements are used, disease treatment, lack of shelter for the animals and poor extension services. It was suggested that utilization of animal traction would be increased significantly if more fund are injected in animal traction technology by the state and local Government