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ThesisItem Open Access Design, development and performance evaluation of a subsoiler-cum-fertilizer applicator(G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand), 2004-07) Shinde, Anil Tukaram; Thakur, T.C.A subsoiler-cum-fertilizer applicator was designed and developed by selecting the best parameters of winged subsoiler with shallow leading tines from previous studies. The equipment consisted of a rectangular frame, a main winged tine, two shallow leading winged tines, two depth control wheels, a fertilizer box of 50 kg capacity equipped with three fixed hole type metering devices, fertilizer conveying system and a ground driven wheel with sprocket and chain arrangement for transmitting power to fertilizer metering rollers. The equipment was evaluated in laboratory for studying the aspects related to fertilizer distribution with different angles of deflector plates and in terms of soil and machine parameters in field. Two shallow leading winged tines were mounted on the rectangular frame longitudinally at 400 mm ahead of the main tine (X-plane), laterally at 850 mm in (Y-plane) and 0.5 times the working depth of main tine in vertical direction (Z-plane). Prior to laboratory testing of the machine, the physical properties of different fertilizers viz. DAP, SSP, MOP and NPK complex were determined and two fertilizers i.e. NPK complex in granular form and MOP in powder form were selected for further investigations. Different deflector plates with included angles of 150, 300, 450, 600, 750 and 900 were tested in laboratory for uniform and continuous band placement of two selected fertilizers at 90 rpm speed of metering roller. The deflector plates with 450 included angle was found best for NPK complex whereas for MOP 600 angle gave best results followed by 450 angle. The minimum Coefficient of Variations of 10.40% and 12.22% with Christiansen’s Coefficient of Uniformity of 95.44% and 94.39% were observed with NPK complex and MOP, for 450 and 600 angles of deflector plates, respectively. The field testing of machine was carried out in sandy loam soil (33.72% sand, 40.25% silt and 26.03% clay) at an average moisture content of 12.69% (d. b.) to evaluate its performance on the basis of changes in soil dry bulk density, specific draft and wheel slippage at 200, 300 and 400 mm depths of operation, respectively. The results revealed that the bulk density was uniform throughout the soil profile after subsoiling at 400 mm depth. The soil bulk density was reduced to a maximum of 16.55% . The specific draft for 300 mm and 400 mm depths of operation was found lower by 19.42% and 31.50% than those of earlier studies with conventional leading tines under similar soil type and conditions studied at Pantnagar. However, the wheel slippage was as high as 24.11% at a draft of 14.63 kN for 400 mm depth which was well beyond the pulling capacity of a 45 hp tractor. The discharge rate of NPK complex and MOP fertilizers in the field were obtained as 59.50 and 56.70 kg/ha with 11 mm diameter opening of metering plate.ThesisItem Open Access Design, development and performance evaluation of a small wheat thresher for hill region(G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand), 2004-07) Dubey, Mukesh; Gupta, O.P.India is the world's second largest wheat producer after China. Wheat is grown under diverse agro climatic conditions and occupies more than 25 million hectares area with average production of 70 million tones. About 88% of total geographical area of Uttaranchal is under hill and 12% of in plain region. Among cereals, wheat occupies the largest net sown area followed by rice. There are enormous small and marginal farmers in the state. The average size of operational land holding is 0.8 hectares (Uttaranchal Manual). Timely threshing of crop is essential in hill regions. Farmers in hill regions use conventional method like hand beating and animal feet trampling for threshing crops. There is a crucial need of small size wheat thresher which can make bhusha, and separate bhusha and grains. The requirement of “Bhusha” making puts an essential constraint on designing wheat crop thresher which could thresh wheat crop efficiently. The peg type cylinders are being used in latest wheat threshers in India for threshing wheat as well as making good quality bhusha. Keeping the above points in view a small wheat thresher having capacity of 1-2 qt/h was designed and fabricated for hill region in the Department of Farm machinery and Power Engineering Pantnagar. The peg type cylinder was selected for this thresher. The blower was mounted on the same shaft. The performance of the thresher was evaluated on four varieties of wheat crops UP-2425, UP-343, VL-616 and VL-738. The results reveled that the threshing efficiency, cleaning efficiency, collective loss, and visible grain damage, germination percentage are close to the BIS standard. The ranges of threshing efficiency of optimum combinations for selected varieties are 98.1 % to 99.36 while visible grain damage 3.6 % to 2%. The quality of bhusa (Avg. length of bhusa 18 mm) is lower than that recommended in BIS standard. The maximum capacity of thresher found to be 131 kg/hr in case of variety UP-343. The thresher is found to be useful for hill region. The power consumption of thresher was measured to be 2.4 kW. The operating cost of thresher is Rs. 9.98/h. The effect of peg orientation on cleaning efficiency and collective loss observed to be insignificant for variety UP-2425.ThesisItem Open Access Design and development of a single beam winged subsoiler with shallow leading tines and potato crop response to subsoiling(G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand), 2004-07) Papal, Satish Sampat; Thakur, T.C.The design and development of a single beam winged subsoiler with shallow leading tines was carried out by selecting the best parameters from the past investigations to alleviate the subsoil compaction or hard pan problems. The position of shallow leading tines with respect to the main winged tine was set at 500 mm (fixed) in X-direction i.e. longitudinal plane, 1050 mm (fixed) in Y-direction i.e. lateral plane and 0.5 times the working depth of main winged tine in Z-direction i.e. vertical plane. The field testing of developed subsoiler was carried out in sandy loam soil at an average moisture content of 12.33% (d.b.) to evaluate its performance on the basis of changes in soil dry bulk density, specific draft and wheel slippage at 250, 350 and 450 mm depths of operation. The results showed that there was uniform reduction in soil dry bulk density throughout the profile with maximum reduction of 13.71% for 300-450 mm profile depth at 450 mm depth of operation. The specific draft was obtained 38.40% and 21.68% lower, but wheel slippage was 54.87% and 35.20% higher than that of 250 mm and 350 mm depths of operation, respectively for 450 mm depth of operation. The field experiment conducted in sandy loam soil for comparison of potato crop response with three tillage treatments such as conventional i.e. disk harrow х 3 + planker х 1 (T1), combined active-passive tillage machine (T2) and Winged subsoiler + Disk harrow х 1 + Planker х 1 (T3) showed that soil dry bulk density reduced to the maximum of 13.55% and soil hydraulic conductivity increased by 1.71 times over initial field condition after subsoiling treatment. However, the clod MWD and draft force were obtained 4.60% and 17.52%, and 24.67% and 125.78% lower with treatment T2 as compared to treatment T1 and T3, respectively. The potato crop response studies showed that plant emergence was better upto 98.89% in case of tillage treatment T2. However, the dry matter of shoots and leaves, roots and tubers for treatment (T3) was 10.63% and 17.61%, 13.40% and 19.00%, and 12.85% and 19.21% higher over treatments T2 and T1, respectively. The potato tuber yields under grade A (53.530 q/ha) and grade B (63.505 q/ha) were significantly (p<0.05) higher in treatment T3 by 37.96% and 25.88%, and 43.68% and 14.41% over T2 and T1 treatments, respectively. The highest tuber yield of 189.750 q/ha was obtained with subsoiling treatment (T3) which was 8.80% and 11.70% higher than that of treatments T2 and T1, respectively.ThesisItem Open Access Studies on thermal kinetics of different designs of family size biogas plants(G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand), 2004-06) Tale, Vaibhav P.; Mishra, T.N.Ambient temperature holds more significance on biogas production as compared to the other process parameters affecting biogas production. At a low ambient temperature, efficiency of biogas plant drops below 50 percent due to which biogas production is seriously hampered and sometimes it gets completely ceased. At low ambient temperature condition plant efficiency can be improved by retaining heat by insulating different plant components. A study was therefore, undertaken to assess the heat transfer characteristics of a 3 m3 capacity Deenbandhu biogas plant having 100 mm thick thermocole insulation over it’s gas dome as well as outlet tank, a 6 m3 capacity Pant Tarai biogas plant having 100 mm thick thermocole insulation around it’s digester as well as on top of the plant, a 3 m3 capacity uninsulated Deenbandhu biogas plant and a 6 m3 capacity uninsulated Pant Tarai biogas plant. Performance of these plants was evaluated which revealed that in the low ambient temperature range of 4 to 110C the air-space temperature inside the insulated Pant Tarai biogas plant remained higher than the ambient temperature by 4.3 to 0.30C. Provision of 100 mm thick thermocole insulation was able to reduce the flow of heat from digester of insulated Pant Tarai biogas plant and outlet tank of insulated Deenbandhu biogas plant to soil and thus kept their slurry temperature higher than soil temperature. The gas temperature inside the insulated Deenbandhu biogas plant remained higher than the gas temperature inside uninsulated Deenbandhu biogas plant by 0.3 to 2.80C. Slurry temperature of both the insulated plants was found higher as compared with slurry temperature of uninsulated plants of respective design at top, middle and bottom zones. Heat transfer rate through each component of insulated Deenbandhu and Pant Tarai biogas plant was much lower as compared to the heat transfer rate through same component of uninsulated Deenbandhu and Pant Tarai biogas plant. Because of more retention of heat in the insulated plants, insulated Deenbandhu and Pant Tarai biogas plants yielded 25.8 percent and 59.1 percent higher biogas as compared with uninsulated Deenbandhu and Pant Tarai biogas plants respectively.ThesisItem Open Access Studies on bio-energetics of draught buffalo using an animal treadmill(G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand), 2004-07) Gayakwad, Harshal Rangrao; Singh, M.P.The physiological, hematological responses alongwith distress symptoms of he-buffalo when exerting a draught of 0, 8, 10, 12 and 14% body weight at 1.5, 2.0 and 2.5 km/h speed of treadmill was studied for a period of 4 hrs. The CIAE animal treadmill was modified by providing 36 rollers (length 1000 mm, outer diameter 50 mm and thickness 5 mm) made up of mild steel pipes. At both the ends of these rollers ball bearings (25 mm diameter) are provided to facilitate smooth operation of treadmill equipped with 3 ply endless conveyor belt (7500 x 1000 x 20 mm). The treadmill could be operated upto a speed of 2.5 km/h with a vertical load (body weight of he-buffalo) of 600 to 700 kg. . The results showed that respiration rate, pulse rate and rectal temperature increased steadily with duration of exercise. The minimum and maximum percentage increase in respiration rate from its resting level during winter season at 1.5, 2.0 and 2.5 km/h speed were 126.35 - 651.26%, 106.31 - 517.70% and 116.27 - 557.69% respectively whereas these values for summer season were, 441.72 - 651.26%, 440.38 - 688.08% and 467.57 - 737.49% respectively. The minimum and maximum percentage increase in pulse rate from its resting level during winter season at 1.5, 2.0 and 2.5 km/h speed were 33.55 - 70.07%, 36.56 - 59.26% and 27.02 - 94.35% respectively whereas these values for summer season were noted as 68.89 - 81.77%, 73.79 - 88.49% and 82.33 – 84.49% respectively. The minimum and maximum percentage increase in rectal temperature from its resting level during winter season at 1.5, 2.0 and 2.5 km/h speed were 2.62 – 5.63%, 3.25 – 6.17% and 3.17 – 8.13% respectively whereas these values for summer season were noted as 4.12 – 6.25%, 4.51 – 6.47% and 5.80– 6.22% respectively. The fatigue score card showed the best performance upto 12% draught at 1.5 km/h followed by 2.0 km/h (upto 10% draught) and 2.5 km/h (upto 8% draught) respectively during winter season upto 4th hour of exercise. In case of summer season, 1.5 km/h showed best performance (upto 10% draught) followed by 2.0 km/h speed (upto 8% draught) and he-buffalo could run on treadmill only 3h (8% draught) and reached a state of fatigue at this draught in 4th hour. The minimum and maximum percentage decrease in total erythrocyte count, total leukocyte count, packed cell volume and hemoglobin from its resting level of he-buffalo was recorded as 9.6 to 24.3%, 14.59 to 36.02%, 2.77 to 12.82% and 1.81 to 22.22% respectively at 1.5 km/h speed. For 2.0 km/h speed these values were noted as 14.08 to 26.5%, 11.44 to 35.19%, 2.77 to 17.95% and 3.64 to 25.39% respectively and in case of 2.5 km/h speed, 9.18 to 28.46%, 11.02 to 37.77%, 5.55 to 20.51% and 3.64 to 19.04% respectively in winter season. In case of summer season, these values were recorded as 8.88 to 17.20%, 0.48 to 13.56%, 2.85 to 15.22% and 5.56 to 18.75% respectively at 1.5 km/h speed. For 2.0 km/h speed, these values were noted as 3.88 to 18.04%, 0.94 to 14.59%, 13.04 to 17.39% and 1.92 to 18.03% respectively and in case of 2.5 km/h speed, 9.18 to 15.29%, 1.35 to 18.45%, 2.56 to 13.04% and 1.85 to 28.57% respectively. The total erythrocyte count, leukocyte count, packed cell volume and hemoglobin indicated a variable but regular declining trend.