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Subject: Agricultural Engineering × End date: 2004 × Start date: 2004 × Type: Thesis ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Development of expert system for selection and design of irrigation methods
    (G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand), 2004-06) Nikam, Bhaskar Ramchandra; Yadav, R.S.
    The selection of an appropriate irrigation method as per site conditions is a prerequisite to attain an optimum level of irrigation efficiency. It involves analysis of large number of parameters and their interactions. It is a laborious and error-prone task if attempted manually. The design of irrigation methods involves large amount of numerical calculations and requires information about the procedure of designing the irrigation system, which is generally not available with the farmers. Considering the above, present study was planned with objective of developing a computer aided expert system for selection and design of irrigation methods. For selection purpose thirteen parameters are recognized. Ten of them are technical parameters, for which the acceptability indices curves are prepared based on their effects on performance of irrigation systems. Ranking of each of the method is done as per the value of irrigation method (VIM). In technical-economic step, three economic parameters are used to determine the relative rank of irrigation method. The best suitable irrigation method for site is selected on the basis of final points. The final points are calculated by assigning weightage of 40% to the technical-economical step and 60% to the analytical-technical step. The best suitable irrigation method is one which has the highest final points. The design of border, basin, furrow and sprinkler irrigation systems are done for maximizing the efficiencies and performance of irrigation system. The volume balance approach is used to design the surface irrigation methods and the semi-portable layout system is considered for designing sprinkler system. The design and selection procedure is linked together and converted to the computer programme written in C++ programming language. For field evaluation of the expert system, the field trial is conducted during Rabi season of the year 2003-2004 on D3 block at CRC, Pantnagar. Information about selection parameters is collected as per the site conditions. With respect to input data, border irrigation method is found to be best suitable for one of the plot and check basin system for other plot. Observations for advance and recession time are recorded for both the irrigation system. It is found that both the irrigation methods are performing with 89 to 91% application efficiency, which is well within the range of designed efficiency. The storage efficiency is 100 % as in all the irrigation events there is complete and over irrigation. Thus, expert system may be used successfully for selection and design of best suitable irrigation method with respect to given field conditions.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Production of single cell oil from molasses and process optimization
    (G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand), 2004-12) Maurya, Amit Kumar; Agrawal, U.S.
    Oils derived from microbial sources are termed as ‘Single Cell Oils’ (SCOs). An agro-industrial byproduct, ‘Sugarcane Molasses’ was used as the source of carbon, since it has the potential of lowering the cost of raw material. On the basis of literature reviewed two oleaginous organisms, namely, Rhodotorula glutinis var. glutinis (maximum lipid content, 70 % d.b.) and Rhodotorula minuta var. minuta (maximum lipid content, 30 % d.b.) were procured from IMTECH, Chandigarh. The average values of lipid content (LC) and total lipid produced (TL), for R. glutinis and R. minuta, were found to be 25.3418 % and 1.9292 g and 24.0263 % and 1.6457 g, respectively. At 95 % confidence level cell biomass, CONF0.95(7.3283≤8.3846≤9.4410), for R. glutinis was more than R. minuta, CONF0.95(6.6302≤6.8414≤7.0525), without any overlapping of ranges. Further, the incubation period for R. glutinis was lower than that of R. minuta by twenty four hours. Hence, R. glutinis R. glutinis was selected from the two organisms for further detailed studies. C/N ratio (23.18, 30, 40, 50 and 56.82), concentration factor (0.664, 0.8, 1, 1.2 and 1.334 l) and incubation period (58.544, 64, 72, 80 and 85.456 h) were selected as the experimental parameters. The individual optima values obtained for C/N ratio, concentration factor and incubation period were 48.5070, 0.7222 l, 67.2480 h; 50.4310, 1.0811 l, 82.5464 h and 47.4970, 0.6967 l, 69.1256 h for cell biomass (9.1296 g), lipid content (28.0566 %) and total lipid produced (2.4208 g). The recommended optimum conditions obtained for the production of Single Cell Oil were 47.4970, 0.6967 l and 69.1256 h for C/N ratio, concentration factor and incubation period and corresponding values for cell biomass, lipid content and total lipid produced were 8.9798 g, 27.1290 % and 2.4208 g. On the basis of contour graphs it was observed that C/N ratio has the most profound effect on the production of cell biomass, lipid content and total lipid produced.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Effect of crop and machine parameters on threshing effectiveness and seed quality of basmati rice
    (G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand), 2004-07) Chauhan, Shiv Sankar; Gupta, O.P.
    Basmati rice is becoming popular all over world. Indian Basmati rice fetches three times higher price than other countries. Recently it was reported that threshing reduces the quality of Basmati rice. Experiment was conducted to study the threshing effectiveness on Basmati paddy. The experiment was conducted on an axial flow multicrop thresher with three varieties of Basmati and one coarse varieties of paddy, with four levels of cylinder speed, three level of moisture content and three level of feed rate. The threshing efficiency was found 100%. Result showed that grain damage and cleaning efficiency increased with the increase in cylinder speed. Maximum grain damage was 0.9% in Pusa Basmati-1 and Basmati-1121 respectively at cylinder speed of 18.21 m/s, moisture content 25.1 per cent and feed rate 960 kg/h. Grain damage of Taraori Basmati, Pusa Basmati-1 and Basmati-1121 is higher than Pant Dhan-12 by 7.3, 19.5 and 24.4 per cent respectively. The cleaning efficiency varied from 91.7 to 99.1% for all the varieties at all cylinder speed, feed rate and moisture content. The maximum cleaning efficiency was observed to be 99.1 percent for Basmati-1121 and minimum 91.7% in case of Pant Dhan-12. Germination percentage was above 80% in all the variety except Pusa Basmati-1. The effect of cylinder speed, moisture content and feed rate were analysed statistically on grain damage, cleaning efficiency and germination percentage. Result showed that effect of these parameters have significant effect. Overall working of thresher was found satisfactory for the selected variety and parameters under study.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Studies on performance evaluation of wheat straw (Bhusa) combine and ammonia (Urea) treatment of retrieve straw for livestock feeding
    (G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand), 2004-08) Verma, Shishir Kumar; Thakur, T.C.
    Cereal straw, forming a major part of crop residue is considered as an important feed resource in India and other developing countries. Efforts are underway for enhanced utilization of straw by improving its nutritional value. A limited number of mechanized systems like field balers and straw combines are now available in India for the collection of long straw and bruised straw from combine harvested fields. Ammonia (urea) treatment of wheat straw (bhusa) may be considered as an important option for quality improvement in nutritional value of wheat straw/ bhusa as livestock feed. Three sets of problems namely, performance evaluation of straw (bhusa) combine, ammonia (urea) treatment of wheat straw (bhusa) and nutritional analysis of treated bhusa were identified in this study. A mathematical model was developed to establish the relationships between liquid inflow rate, wetting time, liquid retained, liquid runoff and moisture content of wheat straw (bhusa) for treatment using urea as a source of ammonia. The straw and grain recoveries for wheat variety PBW 2145 by straw combine (delux model „SAGGU‟) before baling were 2001kgDM/ha & 79 kg/ha, 1956 kgDM/ha & 104 kg/ha and 1778 kgDM/ha & 82.3 kg/ha for forward speeds of 1.95, 2.42 and 3.52 km/h, respectively. Straw recovery after baling was found as 1280, 1350 and 1200 kgDM/ha at forward speeds of 2.04, 2.78 and 3.60 km/h, respectively. The split straw percentage by straw combine before baling was found as 91.20, 88.00 and 86.50% for forward speeds of 1.95, 2.42 and 3.52 km/h, respectively. The straw combine produced maximum amount of bruised straw (70-75%) with fine particle size varying between 4 and 8 mm under both the conditions of „before‟ and „after baling‟ which is acceptable as a good quality animal feed. The average field capacity, field efficiency and fuel consumption of straw combine after baling were found as 0.43 ha/h, 75.48 % and 3.90 l/h for the best speed of about 2.78 km/h. The on-farm cost of operation of straw (bhusa) combine was estimated as Rs 1780 per ha (Rs 904 /t) and Rs 1723 per ha (Rs 1286 /t) for „before‟ and „after baling‟ conditions, respectively whereas the off-farm cost which also includes transportation cost of straw bhusa to a distance of 2.5 km was found to be 1915 and 1833 Rs./ha for „before‟ and „after baling‟ conditions, respectively. The break-even point analysis of the straw combine showed that total cost per hectare of straw combine in both cases (before and after baling) gradually reduced with the increase in area of coverage. The cost analysis of straw recovery also indicated that when an area of about 45 ha/year before baling and 75 ha/year after baling is covered by the straw combine then the cost of bhusa recovery per hectare approximately equals to value of wheat straw (bhusa) collected and sold at rates varying as 1000, 1500 and 2000 Rs./t. The minimum area of coverage per year by the straw combine should be more than 75 ha after baling to make recovery of bhusa profitable. The payback period of the straw combine is dependent on the annual area covered as well as the value of wheat straw (bhusa). For an a70 years for respective straw costs for „after baling‟ condition. The depth of layers up to ten layers of 150 mm each had no significant variations in moisture content of ammonia (urea) treated wheat straw (bhusa) and therefore, a column of 1.5 m height comprising of 10 layers of 150 mm each and 1m diameter for a single sprayer nozzle of 1250 g/min discharge rate could be recommended for ammonia (urea) treatment using the developed „Spraying Method‟. The evaluation of urea treated wheat straw (bhusa) of three columns in terms of in-situ nylon bag dry matter digestibility (NBDMD), crude protein (CP) content and ammonical nitrogen (AN) content indicated significant increase in these values over untreated straw (control). On an average NBDMD increased from 43.47 % (untreated) to 59.14 % (treated). The CP content of treated straw was found as 11.89 %, which were 8.33 percentage units greater than untreated straw (3.56 %). Similarly, the AN content was found as 0.838 % which was 0.793 percentage units greater than untreated straw (0.045 %).