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ThesisItem Open Access Development and quality evaluation of thermally processed jackfruit (artocarpus heterophyllus L.)(Department of Post Harvest Technology and Agricultural Processing, Kelappaji College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology,Tavanur, 2012) Pritty S, Babu; KAU; Sudheer, K PThesisItem Open Access Design and development of tensio-emitter(Department of Land and Water Resources and Conservation Engineering, Kelappaji College of Agricultural Engineering and technology, Tavanur, 2012) Jishitha, Ravindran; KAU; Vishnu, BTimely application of precise amounts of irrigation water increases crop yield due to the decreased moisture stress to plants. Automatic application of irrigation water ensures timely and precise water application, reduces labour cost and prevents water loss and nutrient leaching. Automatic irrigation usually involves sophisticated and expensive instrumentation requiring external power. An irrigation control system that utilizes only the moisture tension to directly control the water application, without using any external power source is desirable for its simplicity and usability in remote areas. In this study, an attempt was made to develop a simple and cost effective irrigation controller working on the basis of soil moisture tension without any external power source. A Tensio-Emitter was developed after evaluating several designs suitable for the same. The developed Tensio-Emitter consists of a porous cup fixed on a stem and an emitter cum valve assembly. The porous cup acts as a sensor which equilibrates the tension inside the stem to that of the surrounding soil. The emitter cum valve assembly consists of a bottom part to be fixed on the stem containing the porous cup, a flexible diaphragm, a conical part to be attached to the diaphragm and a top part which has as the water inlet and outlet. The dimensions of the emitter cum valve assembly was determined based on the size of the available porous cup, the soil moisture tension available at MAD and the deflection of the diaphragm at the tension corresponding to MAD. The Tensio-Emitter is calibrated by adjusting the conical part such that water flow through the emitter starts when the soil becomes dry and stops when the soil reaches field capacity moisture content. Tensio-Emitter – a simple and cost effective irrigation controller cum emitter which is activated by soil moisture tension - was successfully developed, fabricated and calibrated for use in potted plants. The ability of the developed Tensio-Emitter to automatically control the irrigation according to the soil moisture level was evaluated to be good.ThesisItem Open Access Development and testing of a continuous power operated coconut husker(Department of Farm power Machinery and Energy, Kelappaji College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Tavanur, 2012) Anu S, Chandran; KAU; Jayan, P RA continuous power operated coconut husking machine for large scale husking of coconuts was developed, tested and its performance evaluated. The major parts are feeding chute, a husking unit, a husk separating unit and power transmission unit. The coconut fed at the feeding chute and in the clearance between the inlet and the drum is slightly compressed and forced to execute rolling or revolutions. In the process, the blade penetrates the husk and punctures it along different planes. The shear force exerted upon the coconut by the blades of the rotating drum and the concave cause to rip open the husk along different planes. The full coconuts with punctured and softened husk fall into the husk separating unit which consists of two knurling rollers. There the softened and punctured husk is separated and the nut emerges at the outlet. The prime mover used is a 3 φ squirrel cage induction motor of 2.2 kW. This rotation is bifurcated to rotate the husking unit and to the separating unit. A speed reduction unit with gear ratio of 30:1 is used to reduce the motor speed from 1440 rpm to 48 rpm. The speed of the motor is also bypassed to the knurling rollers by means of chain drive, by which the speed is reduced from 1440 to 160 rpm through chain and sprockets units. All components are fixed on the frame. The studies show that the minimum and maximum time required for complete husking of a green coconut were 6 s and 22 s and that for a dry coconut was 3 s and 15 s respectively. Thus the mean time required for complete husking of green coconut is 11.6 s and that of dry coconut is 9.5 s. The average capacity of continuous power operated coconut husking machine is much better and found out as 356 nuts per hour compared to the manual method and by husking by commercial model. Also the efficiency, the percentage of nut breaking and the average energy requirement was 82.79 %, 3.83 % and 0.7365 W respectively. The total operating cost of continuous power operated coconut husking machine is Rs. 95.374 per hour and the cost of husking per nut is about Rs. 0.267. Considering its performances, the mechanism developed in this study is promising.ThesisItem Open Access Development and testing of tractor operated bed former for seed bed preparation in Kaipad region(Department of Farm Power Machinery and Energy, Kelappaji College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology,Tavanur, 2012) Rajesh, A N; KAU; Jayan, P RPaddy cultivation in Kerala is mainly done in dry and wet lands. Kuttanadu, pokkali, Kole and Kaipad lands are mainly lying below sea level and needs much attention especially during bund preparation and nursery raising periods. Kaipad is a land lay in Kannur district of the state extending to an area of 600 ha. It is under the tidal effects of sea water carrying severe salinity and high pH. Paddy cultivation in this region is made on seed beds of about 45 cm height to bring down the salinity and acidity of the soil through leaching. However, manual method of mound making is very laborious intensive and has become a deterrent for the farmers to continue rice farming. Keeping this in view, a tractor operated Kaipad bed former was developed to prepare the seed beds and field tested. Also the cost of operation was compared with the conventional and tractor operated ridger. The height of the seed beds was dependent upon the angle of the plough bottom, speed and depth of operation. To optimize these three factors, tests were conducted under dynamic condition in a test plot. The height of the seed bed was observed to be the maximum at 40 degrees of the plough bottom. The maximum height of bed was formed at a speed of 2.0 km hˉ¹ and depth of 20 cm. To reduce the draft of the implement the speed was set at 1.5 km hˉ¹ and depth of operation at 15 cm. The field performance of the bed former based on the optimized machine parameters, the Kaipad bed former was evaluated and compared with the tractor operated ridger and conventional method. The average height and top width of the seed bed obtained with the Kaipad bed former and ridger were 34.7 cm, 18.4 cm and 29.4 cm and 23.2 cm respectively. The minimum draft required for the Kaipad bed former and tractor operated ridger was 402.6 kgf and 398.6 kgf and draw bar power was 8.03 hp and 7.8 hp respectively. The fuel consumption with the tractor operated Kaipad bed former was found as 6.8 l hˉ¹; while it was 6.6 l hˉ¹ with the tractor operated ridger. Field efficiency of the Kaipad bed former was 73.9 percent compared to 70.5 percent for the tractor operated ridger. Wheel slippage was found out as 19.79 percent for Kaipad bed former and 17.7 percentages for tractor operated ridger. With the tractor operated Kaipad bed former, the soil acidity and salinity could be reduced from a pH value of 5.7 to 6.5 and 15.7 mmhos cmˉ¹ to 2.1 mmhos cmˉ¹. Yield obtained from the plots operated with conventional method, tractor operated ridger and Kaipad bed former was respectively 2625 kg haˉ¹, 2766 kg haˉ¹ and 2800 kg haˉ¹. Total cost of operation for mound making by conventional method and tractor operated bed former are respectively Rs.12000 and Rs. 2480. The cost of the tractor operated Kaipad bed former is Rs. 18875.ThesisItem Open Access Investigations on clamping and climbing mechanisms for the design of semi autonomous areca palm climber(Department of Farm power Machinery and Energy, Kelappaji College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Tavanur, 2017) Supritha; KAU; Shivaji, K PThesisItem Open Access Coastal erosion study of Ponnani region using multispectral images(Department of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering, Kelappaji College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Tavanur, 2015) Sheeja, P S; KAU; Vishnu, BA study of coastal erosion along the Ponnani coast using multispectral imageries and GIS was undertaken to assess the temporal changes in coastal erosion, its extent, magnitude and trends in the region under study. The study also aimed to evaluate the impact of the existing coastal erosion control structures with a view to assess its efficacy and to identify priority areas for coastal erosion prevention along the study area. The study utilized medium resolution LANDSAT imageries for the mapping and monitoring of the coastline erosion. The digital image processing software used for calculating the erosion rate was TNTmips 2014 professional version (Map and Image Processing System - MIPS) by MicroImages, Inc. The study revealed the usability of multispectral satellite imageries like that obtained from LANDSAT, IRS etc. satellites in assessing the temporal changes along the coastline by the combined application of remote sensing and GIS techniques. Both long-term and short-term erosion assessment showed that many places along the Ponnani shoreline are under severe erosion. Short-term erosion assessment revealed that many places were having coastal erosion rates more than -4 m/year. The impact of these shoreline protection structures and coastal processes on erosion process was also taken in to account in this study. The study revealed that Ponnani is an actively eroding coast with fluctuating erosion rates. The erosion rates were found to be high with a rate more than -4 m/year for about 35 km of the coastline considered. The areas with accelerated erosion along the coast of Ponnani need sustainable management and protective measures. The coastal erosion study using remote sensing and GIS techniques provided realistic information about the erosion process along Ponnani area and this method can be successfully used for mapping and monitoring coastal changes.ThesisItem Open Access Effect of microclimate on the performance of salad cucumber under naturally ventilated polyhouse(Department of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering, Kelappaji College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Tavanur, 2014) Preenu, N P; KAU; Levan, K VA study was conducted to determine the effect of microclimate on the plant growth characteristics and fruit yield of salad cucumber grown in a naturally ventilated polyhouse at PDFC, KCAET, Tavanur, Kerela. The crop water requirement of the salad cucumber was determined using the irrigation management and planning model CROPWAT. The calculated total evapotranspiration during the crop period was 264.6 mm. The daily crop water requirement of salad cucumber obtained was 2.84 mm. The microclimate change in a naturally ventilated polyhouse was also evaluated. The results were then discussed with respect to yield of salad cucumber. It was seen that the most suitable temperature range for the optimum crop production is 22 to 33oC and most suitable relative humidity range was 80 to 95%. The irrigation trial was carried out with four levels of irrigation viz. 50, 65, 80 and 95% of daily irrigation requirement. Under the same fertilizer amount, the highest yield was obtained for the treatment with 65% of daily irrigation requirement and the lowest yield was obtained with 50%. This may be due to the reason that plants suffer due to water deficit by limited application of water. Irrigation amount significantly affected irrigation water use efficiency (IWUE). It ranged from 150 kg/ha-mm to 359 kg/ha-mm. In the fertigation trial, the treatment which applied 100% of fertilizer requirement increased the yield significantly compared to 80, 90 and 110% under the same amount of irrigation. The fruit characteristics and quality did not vary significantly with respect to irrigation and fertigation levels.ThesisItem Open Access Performance evaluation of hydrocyclone filter(Department of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering, Kelappaji College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Tavanur, 2001) Damodhara Rao, M; KAU; John Thomas, Kthe final efficiencies are almost the same irrespective of the concentration of soil suspension. The particle size distribution of underflow material for different concentrations of soil suspension indicates a measure of separation efficiency of the filter. It was found that the percentage finer to coarser particles is almost the same for all the concentrations but for lower concentrations, fine particles have higher percentage of finer. This may indicate the efficient separation of fine particles in the case of lower . concentrations of soil suspensions. For the soil suspension of 300, 600, 900 and 1200mg/1 the percentage of particles finer than 0.075111111 are 0.86, 0.58, 1.96 and 4.05% respectively. The higher value of concentration for 300mg/1 indicates the better separation of finer particles.ThesisItem Open Access Development of seedling uprooting unit for system of rice intensification(College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Kelappaji, 2016) Sreerag, P M; KAU; Shivaji, K PThe present study was conducted to develop a seedling uprooting machine for System of Rice Intensification (SRI). System of Rice Intensification is a method developed in Madagascar in the early 1980’s, where, it has been shown that yields can be enhanced by suitably modifying certain management practices such as controlled supply of water, planting of younger seedlings and providing wider spacing. In this method 12 to 15 days old root washed seedlings are transplanted on the well puddled field. Only one younger seedling is transplanted per hill with row to row and hill to hill spacing of 25 cm. The preparation of seedlings for this method involves uprooting from nursery and washing the roots. This is done manually and no mechanical device for uprooting seedlings is available at present. In this circumstance, there is a need for the mechanization in the uprooting, washing and feeding the seedling to root washed transplanter. On this ground a seedling uprooting unit for system of rice intensification was developed and field tested. The seedling uprooting unit was consists of four major components namely bed cutting tool, conveyor unit, main frame and power unit. In order to cut the required thickness of soil bed, cutting tool was developed and fabricated with MS flat sheet of 2mm thickness. It consists of a rectangular base plate (25×30 cm) placed horizontally beneath the cutting blade. The cut seedling beds were conveyed through a slatted belt type conveyor having two adjacent roller chains inter linked with MS flat linkages giving overall belt width of 25 cm and 155 cm belt length. In order to drive the conveyor belt, a power unit from the existing vertical conveyor reaper was chosen. It consisted of 4 hp gasoline engine. According to the geometry of power unit a suitable frame was fabricated using MS angles (3×3 cm) to attach the cutting and conveying unit. The developed seedling uprooting unit was tested in the field to optimize the speed of operation and angle of cutting. Three levels of angle of blade viz., 20, 30 and 40 degrees and three levels of engine speed viz., 1000, 2000 and 3000 rpm were selected for the study. The thickness of bed, time of operation, wheel slip and plant damage were tested with respect to the above selected cutting angles and engine speeds. From the field observations it was found that cutting angle of 30° with engine speed of 2000 rpm was best for the effective seedling uprooting in terms of bed thickness, time of operation, wheel slip and plant damage. For this final prototype field performance characteristics like field capacity, field efficiency and fuel consumption were assessed. The theoretical field capacity was computed as 163.33 m2h-1 and field efficiency was found to be 81.2 per cent. The observed fuel consumption for the final prototype was in the range of 0.51 to 0.53 l.h-1. At the present wage rate of Rs 300 per day, the total cost for uprooting and washing of seedlings for cultivating an area of one hectare by manual method is about Rs 750. The total cost for uprooting and washing of seedlings for cultivating an area of one hectare by using machine is Rs 250. Hence a saving of Rs 500 can be expected by using the developed machine for preparing the seedlings required for cultivating one hectare.