Current Issue : April - June Volume : 2015 Issue Number : 2 Articles : 6 Articles
In Thailand, sugarcane mills have faced supply and demand imbalance problems. Solving such problems is\ncomplicated due to various substantial factors. Sugarcane cultivation and harvest are important processes since they are the\nearly stages of the sugarcane industry. Cultivation and harvest planning can be designed by using optimization model in order\nto balance supply and demand. This paper proposes a linear optimization model used in sugarcane cultivation and harvest\nplanning with multiple suppliers. Sugarcane survival rate is one of the important factors considered in the presented model.\nA case study of the large-size sugarcane mills in Thailand was investigated. Many other significant factors were considered\nsuch as cultivating land size, sugarcane type, harvesting capacity, and delivery contract with the mill. The objective function\nwas to maximize commercially recoverable sugar content in sugarcane (C.C.S.) of the total amount of sugarcane supplied to\nmill. This model can be applied as a supply management tool for both farmers and the mill management based on real\nsituation....
In this paper, a power tiller vibration was investigated at handle position as well as seat position of a trailer pulled by\nthe power tiller. The experiments were conducted at five levels of engine speed, four levels of transmission gear ratio during\ntransportation, and in three directions. Then the weighted 1/3rd octave spectrum was calculated from the narrow band vibration\nacceleration signals. The amount of vibration damage on operator's body and allowable exposure limits were calculated based on\nISO standards. The results showed that the vibration increased with the engine speed increased for all the gear ratios and\ndirections. The magnitude of vibration was the greatest at vertical direction in all the experiments. The vibration allowable\nexposure time was in the range of 2.32 - 5.7 years at the power tiller handle for the different engine speeds and gear ratios. The\ntotal equivalent vibration, A (8), at the trailer seat was in the range of 0.5 to 0.87 m/s2 and it exceeded the allowable limits for the\nreduced comfort boundary, fatigue-decreased boundary and exposure limit for 8 hrs day-1. So, it is necessary to reduce the\nvibration transmitted to the operator�s hand and body by designing and developing adequate insulating systems....
To evaluate the performance of a variable rate boom sprayer, an artificial neural network (ANN) was employed. To\nmodel output flow of nozzles, 727 nets by four neural net models, namely, linear, MLP, RBF and GRNN were tested. For\neach nozzle, 45, 22 and 23 experimental data were used for train, verification and test, respectively. The results indicated\nthat RBF model as the best by regression ratio at 0.2 and coefficient of determination (R2) at 0.98. Based on the results,\naverage value of R2 and coefficient of variation (CV) for RBF model were 0.99 and 18.96%, respectively. From the results,\nit is concluded that ANN model could be a good predictor to evaluate the performance of a variable rate application system....
An artificial neural network (ANN) model, with a back propagation learning algorithm, was developed to predict draft\nrequirements of two winged share tillage tools in a loam soil. The input parameters to the 3ââ?¬â??7ââ?¬â??1 ANN model were; share width,\nworking depth and operating speed. The output from the network was the draft requirement of each tillage tool. The developed\nmodel predicted the draft requirements of the winged share tillage tools with a mean relative error of 0.56 and mean square errors\nof 0.049, when compared to measured draft values. This result indicates that the ANN model had successfully learnt from the\ntraining data set to enable correct interpolation and could be used as an alternative tool for modeling soil-tool interaction under\nspecific experimental conditions and soil types....
Ever increasing fuel price and unreliable electricity supply hamper irrigated crop production in Bangladesh. Solar\npump may be an alternative to the electric motor operated pumps for irrigated crop production in the country, especially for the\noff-grid rural areas. This paper presents the technical and economic suitability of solar pump irrigations of rice and non-rice\n(upland) crop productions in Bangladesh. Four solar pumps (submersible type, 1,050 Wp) were installed in different locations\nfor irrigating rice, wheat and vegetables. The solar pumps were used for drip irrigation and furrow irrigation for cultivation of\nbrinjal and tomato during the winter seasons of 2010-2011, 2011-2012 and 2012-2013. There were no significant differences\nof yields of brinjal between drip and furrow irrigations in the year 2010-2011 in Gazipur and during 2011-2012 in Jamalpur.\nBut in 2012-2013, significantly higher yield of brinjal was obtained from drip irrigated plots (43.9 t/ha) compared to the furrow\nirrigated plots (38.6 t/ha). There was no significant difference between drip and furrow irrigation methods in Jamalpur in\nterms of tomato yield. Significantly higher yields of tomato were recorded in Gazipur from drip irrigated plots than those of\nfurrow irrigated plots in both the year 2011-2012 and 2012-2013. Water savings by drip irrigation over furrow irrigation for\nbrinjal and tomato were 53.3% and 56.2%, respectively. The yield of summer tomato was 33.7 t/ha in drip irrigated plot while\n31.9 t/ha in furrow irrigated plot during 2011-2012. Water requirements of summer tomato in drip and furrow irrigation\nmethods were 225 mm and 429 mm, respectively. For cultivation of wheat about 430 mm water was required and the yield\nwas 3.0 t/ha. Boro rice was cultivated in Magura and Barisal during 2011-2012 and 2012-2013. During the cropping season\ntotal water requirement for boro rice cultivation was 1,024 mm in Magura and 1,481 mm in Barisal. Use of solar pumps was\nfound economical for wheat (BCR 2.31), tomato (BCR 2.22) and brinjal (BCR 2.34) production, but not for boro rice (BCR\n0.31). Being an environmentally sound and green technology solar pumps can be promoted for the cultivation of non-rice\ncrops....
The use of tractors for agricultural works showed an important role to mechanized agricultural sector. A repairable\nmechanical system (as agricultural tractor) is subject to deterioration or repeated failure. In this study, the regression model\nwas used to predict the failure rate of MF399 tractor. The machine failure pattern was carefully studied and key factors\naffecting the failure rate were identified in five regions of Khouzestan province. The tractors grouped in four sub groups\naccording to annual use hours and maintenance policies (corrective maintenance and preventive maintenance). Results\nshowed that the majority of recorded failures were observed in the electrical system (20.3%) for each machine sub-group.\nMaximum and minimum annual repair and maintenance costs were related to other (tire, ring, ball bearing and operator seat) and\nbrake system respectively. According to the results of the research, different annual use hours and maintenance policies\naffected failure rate. The tractors included in 300-1,000PM subgroup were mostly in the useful life period while the machines\nwere towards the wearing out period of machine life for 300-1,000CM subgroup. The tractors maintained under 1,200-2,000PM\nsubgroup showed an obvious indication of wear-out period entrance, while the tractors were mostly in the wear-out period for\nthe 1,200-2,000CM sub group. The tractors included in 300-1,000 annual use hours were commonly in a randomized\nbreakdown period during their useful life but these tractors tend to enter the wear out period in the 1,200-2,000 annual use hours.\nSo, annual use hours were more effective on failure rate in comparison with maintenance policies....
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