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2011 - 20175
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Subject: Farm, Machinery and Power × End date: 2017 × Start date: 2010 × Thesis Type: M.Tech ×
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Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Evaluation of respirable dust filtering materials for agricultural field operations
    (Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 2017) Narjeet Singh; Khurana, Rohinish
    Indian economy is heavily dependent on agriculture. Most of the agriculture operations had been mechanized. Mechanization leads to dust generation especially during tillage, harvesting and threshing operations. Prolonged exposure to dust is harmful for the agricultural farm workers. A study was conducted to identify agricultural field operations requiring intervention of personal protection from respirable dust as health hazard. Protective measures available were evaluated during the study. Observations were made to measure the density of three different particle sizes i.e. 1µ, 2.5µ and 10µ of the dust generated during tillage, harvesting and threshing operations using dust monitor. The selected implements were cultivator, disc harrow, rotavator, planker, laser leveler, thresher and combine harvester. Mean values of dust density across all operations were found to be within permissible limit of 5.0 mg/m3 as defined by OSHA. Four most dust generating operations were identified as disc harrow, rotavator, combine and thresher with mean dust density values 2.501, 2.600, 3.404 and 3.167 mg/m3. Fifteen different filtering elements were evaluated for their dust filtering performance during the selected operations. Mean values of dust density for all filter elements during the selected operations varied between 0.175 and 0.505 mg/m3. The overall mean dust filtering efficiency value for all the filter elements varied between 76.4 to 96.1%. Cloth type filter elements with three layers were found to be most efficient out of all the filter elements. Cloth 1(68% polyester and 32% cotton fabric) type having three layers was most efficient with 96.1 % filtering efficiency.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Evaluation of soil compaction as affected by different tillage practices
    (Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 2017) Abhishek Kumar; Saimbhi, Varinder Singh
    A study for evaluating the soil compaction caused by different tillage practices was undertaken. The independent parameters for the study were two soil types (sandy loam, S1 and silty loam, S2), six different tillage practices (conventional tillage practice as P1, P2, rotavator practices as P3, P4 and spading machine as P5, P6), two forward velocity ranges (V1 and V2) and two operation depth ranges (D1 and D2). Replicated (three) trials in factorial in RBD were adopted for the study. Soil bulk density and cone index values were taken at selected sampling depths for determining the initial soil compaction i.e before tillage treatments. Effect of irrigation on soil compaction was also noted at optimum moisture level after irrigation but before tillage treatments. Cone indices of both types of soils were found lesser, after irrigation, than that of before irrigation conditions. Bulk density of soil S1 was higher after irrigation, whereas of soil S2, it was lower than that of before irrigation, before tillage conditions. Cone indices in both types of soils were observed lesser than that of initial compaction, in top 10 cm of soil, after different tillage treatments. Cone indices, at sub-soil depths (at 15 cm and beyond) of both soil types, in P3, P4, P5 and P6 tillage practices were found to be comparatively more that of initial soil compaction for most of the treatments. Bulk density was observed lower than that of initial soil compaction for all the treatments in both soil types. Mean weight diameter of soil clods formed were minimum whereas fuel consumption (l/h) values were maximum in case of rotavator among all the treatment values.
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    ThesisItemRestricted
    STUDIES ON THE PERFORMANCE OF C.I. ENGINE USING ETHYL ESTER AS AN ALTERNATIVE FUEL
    (PAU Ludhiana, 2011) Rajneesh Kumar; Anoop Kumar, Dixit
    The agriculture sector of the country is mainly dependent on diesel for its motive power and to a large extent for power applications. Increased farm mechanization in agriculture, further increases requirement of this depleting fuel source. To overcome the problems associated with the use of petroleum derived fuels, it becomes necessary to develop alternative fuels with properties comparable to petroleum based fuels. Among the alternative fuels, biodiesel fuel has received much attention in recent years for use in diesel engines and could be one alternative in the country to reduce petroleum diesel import. Research has been done in the country using methanol. But, methanol is toxic in nature. Ethanol is derived from biomass. Ethyl ester derived from plant oils by using ethanol brings extra carbon atoms through ethanol molecule which slightly increases the heat content and the cetane number. Ethyl esters have lower cloud and pour points than the methyl esters. This fact improves the cold start of engine. Jatropha plant oil is non edible oil so it was selected for preparation of ethyl ester. The available Jatropha oil had high free fatty acid therefore, a twostep transesterification process was used to prepare ester for the study. Fuel characteristics of different blends of ethyl ester and diesel were determined in terms of kinematic viscosity (cS), gross heating value (MJ/kg), density (g/cm3), flash point (ºC), cloud point (ºC) and pour point (ºC) and were compared with that of pure diesel fuel. Thereafter, five blends of ester and diesel were used as fuel at four levels of loads i.e. 0%, 25%, 50%, and 75% of the rated load for engine performance study at two different compression ratio (16.5:1 and 18.5:1) and compare the results with the results obtained in case of diesel fuel. Maximum recovery of ester was obtained by pretreating the oil with 5% H2SO4 and 20% ethanol and then its transesterification using 30% ethanol and 3% KOH. Kinematic viscosity (cS), density (g/cm3), flash point (ºC), cloud point (ºC) and pour point (ºC) of all blends of ethyl esters (B10, B20, B30 and B40) were higher than that of diesel and gross heating values (MJ/kg) of all biodiesel blends were less as compared to diesel. Nitric oxide (NOx) emissions in case of all biodiesel blends were more as compared to diesel. NOx concentration in exhaust gases was increased with increase of ester in blends and also increased with increase in compression ratio. Carbon monoxide (CO) emission for all biodiesel blends was less as compared to diesel. CO concentration in exhaust gases was decreased with increase in percentage of ester in the blend and also decreased with increase in compression ratio. Brake thermal efficiency for all biodiesel blends was more as compared to diesel. Brake thermal efficiency increased with increase in load and also increased with increase in compression ratio. Brake specific fuel consumption in case of blends was more as compared to diesel. Brake specific fuel consumption decreased with increase in load as well as with increase in compression ratio.
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    ThesisItemRestricted
    Ergonomic evaluation of walk behind type self propelled paddy transplanter
    (Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 2016) Goyal, Gagandeep; Chhuneja, N. K.
    The self propelled walk behind type paddy transplanters are gaining popularity as they require comparatively lesser initial investment and are easy to operate and maintain as compared to riding type. The ergonomic aspects of walk behind paddy transplanter are of great importance as the operator has to walk behind the machine for a distance of about 10-20 km for 8-hours a day and that also under puddled field conditions. Besides walking in field, stress due to mechanical vibrations, human workload, noise, etc. also affect performance of the operator. The research was planned to study the effect of operational parameters of walk behind self propelled paddy transplanter on physiological parameters, noise, vibrations and work-rest schedule. Hand-arm vibrations were the maximum along x-axis (vertical) and the minimum along y-axis (lateral). Soil type had non-significant effect on vibrations acceleration. However, vibrations increased with increase in forward speed of the paddy transplanter. The mean values of vibrations total value varied from 8.6 to 14.0 m/s2 among all the treatments. The equivalent 8-hours vibrations exposure was found to be ranging between 7.4 and 12.0 m/s2, which was very much higher than the limiting value of 2.8 m/s2 for safe operation of machine. The mean values of sound pressure level varied from 74.0 to 85.7 dB(A) among all the treatments. The mean values of oxygen consumption varied between 607.6 and 1052.6 ml/min with corresponding relative load between 18.1 and 37.3% among all the treatments. The mean values of energy expenditure rate varied between 12.7 and 22.0 kJ/min. The physiological workload was found to be in the category of light work at 1.3 and 1.8 km/h of forward speed of paddy transplanter; but, as moderate work at a forward speed of 2.3 km/h. The physiological responses viz. heart rate, volume of oxygen consumption, discomfort ratings and noise were within the desired limits at the maximum available forward speed of 2.3 km/h of the machine, which also gives the maximum possible field capacity. At this forward speed, a work schedule of about 45 minutes of operating the paddy transplanter followed by a rest of about 15 minutes is desired, which can be easily achieved if the two workers interchange their work after every 45 minutes.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Development of Relationship between Remotely Sensed Data at Different Crop Growth Stages and Yield Monitor Data for Maize Crop
    (Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 2016) Sanodiya, Rajeshwar; Manjeet Singh
    The average yield of maize in India is only 2.47 tonnes/ha as against the global average of 5.47 tonnes/ha. To meet the food grain requirement of 480 million tonnes by the year 2050 in India, with the increasing challenges of biotic-abiotic stresses experienced by crops, introduction and adoption of modern technologies in Indian agriculture is inevitable. Precision farming is one of the technology which helps to find these goals. Monitoring of crop growth and forecasting its yield well before harvest is very important for better crop and food management. Hence, the study has been carried out to develop the empirical relationship between remotely sensed data at different crop growth stages and yield data for maize crop. Spectroradiometer, infrared camera, N-Tester and chlorophyll content meter (CCM) were used to collect data at different growth stages of the crop to develop relationship with the yield monitor data. The near infrared (NIR) camera was mounted on parrot AR. Drone 2.0 frame for image acquisition. Maize field was harvested by the combine harvester mounted with yield monitor to generate the yield map of the field. The average yield of the field recorded by yield monitor was 3913.9 kg/ha with standard deviation of 390.12 kg/ha and coefficient of variation of 9.33 %. The data revealed that the grid size has non-significant effect on yield and error at 5 % level of significance. Statistical linear regression models were used to develop empirical relationship between the sensor data and yield at three growth stages of maize crop. The yield prediction equations have maximum coefficient of determination (R²) i.e. 0.90, 0.84, 0.86 for NDVI (R630-690 and R760-900), N-Tester and NDVI (NIR camera) respectively at silking stage (R1). While for CCI, the maximum coefficient of determination i.e. 0.87 was observed at dough stage (R4). All sensor values like NDVI, CCI and N-tester values were positively correlated with yield data at all growth stages of maize. The data revealed a close linear relationship between NDVI (NIR camera) and NDVI (R630-690 and R760-900) with coefficient of determination (R2) value 0.80. Similarly there was a close relationship between CCI and N-tester values with coefficient of determination (R2) 0.79. It was concluded that the silking stage (R1 stage) i.e. 55 DAP was the most prominent stage for yield prediction using NDVI. Yield can be predicted 48 days before harvesting using reflectance data captured by spectroradiometer.