ArticleCurrently, there has been a great effort on increasing the efficiency of agricultural
machinery. The energy demands of mulching with the
vertical
axis of rotation
depends
on the
amount
of pr
ocessed material per unit of time, its properties and efficiency of material processing.
Another
important
factor that is affecting the overall energy demands is the energy losses, which
can be even higher than energy, required
for
the processing of materi
al.
The efficiency
of the
material processing and the energy losses
are influenced
to a large extent by the air flow inside
the mulcher workspace, which
is created
by the movement of working tools. The air flow ensures
the repeated contact of the processed
material with the working tools, affects the energy losses
and the quality of work. The contribution deals with the air flow conditions inside the workspace
of mulcher with the
vertical
axis of rotation. The velocity of the
air flow
was measured
my
means
of LDA (Laser Doppler Anemometry) method in three planes above the surface (180, 100 and
20
mm
) and
in
two directions (peripheral and radial). The laboratory model of one mulcher rotor
from mulcher MZ 6000 made by BEDNAR Ltd. company
was used
for the measu
rement. From
the
results
it is evident that the maximum values of peripheral velocity of the air flow reach
approx. 50% of the velocity of the tools. In the radial
plane
an air vortex is created between 20
and 100
mm
planes above the surface around the tip
of the blade
