Thumbnail Image

Anand Agricultural University, Anand

Anand Agricultural University (AAU) was established in 2004 at Anand with the support of the Government of Gujarat, Act No.(Guj 5 of 2004) dated April 29, 2004. Caved out of the erstwhile Gujarat Agricultural University (GAU), the dream institution of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Dr. K. M. Munshi, the AAU was set up to provide support to the farming community in three facets namely education, research and extension activities in Agriculture, Horticulture Engineering, product Processing and Home Science. At present there seven Colleges, seventeen Research Centers and six Extension Education Institute working in nine districts of Gujarat namely Ahmedabad, Anand, Dahod, Kheda, Panchmahal, Vadodara, Mahisagar, Botad and Chhotaudepur AAU's activities have expanded to span newer commodity sectors such as soil health card, bio-diesel, medicinal plants apart from the mandatory ones like rice, maize, tobacco, vegetable crops, fruit crops, forage crops, animal breeding, nutrition and dairy products etc. the core of AAU's operating philosophy however, continues to create the partnership between the rural people and committed academic as the basic for sustainable rural development. In pursuing its various programmes AAU's overall mission is to promote sustainable growth and economic independence in rural society. AAU aims to do this through education, research and extension education. Thus, AAU works towards the empowerment of the farmers.

Browse

1986 - 198921990 - 19971
Reset filters
Subject: Agricultural Engineering × End date: 1999 × Start date: 1980 ×
Reset filters

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
  • Thumbnail Image
    ThesisItemOpen Access
    STUDIES ON PHYSICAL AND MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF FRESH AND STORED WATERMELON
    (AAU, Anand, 1997) GABANI, S. H.; Siripurapu, S C B
    Watermelon (Citrullus Vulgaris Schrad) is one of the important fruits because of its special nutritive value. It is widely grown as a summer fruit crop all over India. It has good flavour, taste and colour which attract the consumers. Generally only fleshy parts of the ripened watermelon fruit is consumed while the rest madeup of rind and seeds are discarded. Fresh matured watermelons are harvested and transported to the market and stored till they are ripened. Generally the watermelons are stored either in a simply shaded open structure or in a room or vakhar type closed structure. The losses in handling occurs due to physical and mechanical injuries which include cuts, punctures, scars and scuffmarks. Therefore the physical and mechanical properties of fruits are important to the researcher, design engineer, the food industry and the consumer alike. A knowledge on the basic physical and mechanical properties is essential for the development of transportation models, machines and storage structures. Therefore, the present investigation was undertaken to study the physical and mechanical properties of fresh and stored watermelon. Fresh watermelon fruits of variety Sugar baby were selected and handpicked from the field. The physical properties, static friction coefficients on different materials and mechanical properties were determined. The average three axial dimensions viz., maximum equatorial, minimum equatorial, and polar diameter and geometrical mean diameter of the watermelon are 166.5, 161.1, 165.9 and 164.4 mm respectively. The average sphericity and shape factor are 96.8 per cent and 1.008 respectively. The average volume and weight are 2616 CC and 2.356 kg respectively and the average weight density and average bulk density are 890 and 550.2 kg m-3 respectively. The packing factor/bulk porosity is 38.13 per cent. The frequency distribution curves of the axial dimensions are following a normal distribution with slight skew and have high peaks close to their mean average dimensions. The per cent sphericity frequency distribution graph is following a skew distribution and a maximum of 27 per cent fruits have the per cent sphericity of 98 and about 84 per cent fruits have per cent sphericity between 95-100. The frequency distribution of the shape with respect to volume range is indicating that the shape is a function of size and with increase in size, the shape tends to change from oblate to prolate. The volume and weight frequency curves are following normal distribution with slight skew. Volume, weight and weight density are having highest frequencies of 29, 35 and 39 per cent respectively close to their average values. It is found that models based on linear relationship are adequate to describe the relationship between dimensions, between cube of dimensions and volume/weight and between volume and weight. The average coefficients of friction of watermelon are 0.511, 0.529, 0.548 and 0.562 on galvanised iron, mild steel, aluminium and plywood sheets, respectively. Mechanical properties, namely, average quasi-static compression rupture force, puncture strength, static compression rupture stress and impact rupture energy per unit weight for watermelon are 1638.3 N, 885.1 N, 44321 N m-2 and 12.49 N m/kg, respectively The best fitted empirical models were developed to describe the effect of watermelon weight on different quasi-static rupture force parameters. It is observed that the per cent shinkage in volume, weight loss and weight density reduction is increased with storage for both indoor and outdoor storage treatments. It is found that maximum shrinkage of volume is 3.59 and 3.61 per cent, maximum weight loss is 11.47 and 10.69 per cent and maximum reduction of weight density is 8.49 and 7.07 per cent for outdoor and indoor stored watermelon fruits respectively, at the end of the fifth week. It is observed in all the cases that static friction coefficient is decreasing linearly with storage for both the treatments. It is observed that quasi-static rupture force decreases with storage for both the storage treatments. It is also observed that quasi-static compression rupture force is higher till the end of second week of storage and subsequently it was lower for indoor stored fruits compared to the open system. It is found that the puncture strength is decreasing with storage at a decreasing rate for both the storage treatments. The static compression test parameters, namely, rupture force, stress and stress-strain ratio of stored watermelon are decreasing with storage for both indoor and outdoor stored samples. In this case also, the rupture force for indoor stored samples was more than that of outdoor stored samples. It is further observed in impact test that rupture energy per unit weight of fruit is decreasing at decreasing rate with storage for both the storage treatments. It is found that the impact rupture energy per unit weight is more for indoor stored fruits compared to fruits stored in open in the veranda. From the results obtained in the present investigation, an inference can be drawn that indoor stored fruits are stronger than the outdoor stored fruits. It is also found that after the fifth week of the storage, in both outdoor and indoor storage systems, the watermelon fruits were unfit for human consumption. The data generated in the present study and models developed will be useful in the design of handling, transportation and storage systems for watermelon.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ThesisItemOpen Access
    STUDIES ON THOR LATEX EXTRACTION AND DRYING
    (AAU, Anand, 1986) PATEL, K. V.; Siripurapu, S. C. B.
    In the present investigations extraction and drying of Thor latex were studied. Various parameters related to plant and cut like cut location, cut spacing, depth of cut, spacing of cut, cut interval, latex collection time, seasonal latex yield were studied to optimize operating parameters of latex collection. Horizontal type of cut with 5 mm depth on the main stem at a collection interval of one week gave satisfactory results. 25 mm width of cut was found to be acceptable. For optimum latex yield, out spacing of 150 mm is recommended. A collection interval of 15 seconds is recommended so as to recover around 90 percent of latex and also to harvest as many plants as possible. The latex yield per out is around 1 ml. The hammer shaped outting tool was modified to give proper cut without much exertion to the worker. A two vessel collection system was designed. The instant latex collection vessel is of 250 ml capacity and of cuboid shape with handle. A commonly used galvanized iron bucket with a lid was selected as a storage vessel. The overall performance of improved latex collection system was found to be superior over traditional method.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ThesisItemOpen Access
    DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF ANIMAL DRAWN GROUNDNUT PLANTER
    (AAU, Anand, 1987) MEMON, ABUBAKAR H.; Hakimuddin
    Experimentally it was found that the traditional method of sowing leads to unsatisfactory plant population which in turn affects the yield per hectare. Beside, this, in the traditional method the seed requirement is 10 to 20 % higher and thinning is required to get desired plant population. Groundnut, therefore, required a planter for accurate seed metering and regulating,plant to plant spacing in row. Till to date animal drawn groundnut planter is not available which can perform the above mentioned functions satisfactorily. Keeping the above facts in view a project on design and development of animal drawn groundnut planter was under taken at Department of Farm Engineering, Gujarat Agricultural University, Junagadh Campus, Junagadh.The designed and developed groundnut planter was tested both at laboratory as well as field level. The seed rate, mechanical damage and viability of seeds were tested in the laboratory. The seed rate for groundnut varieties JL-24 and GAUG-1 were found to be 103 kg/ha and 101 kg/ha respectively, Whereas the mechanical damage of both the varieties JL-24 and GAUG-1 were 0.77 % and 0.61 % respectively. The viability of seed from the planter was satisfactory. During field testing of the planter, the power requirement, depth of placement of seeds in the furrows, uniformity and spacing were determined. It was found that the draft required to operate this planter was 26.31 kg with the speed of 2.2 kmph (.0,61 m/sec). The average power required to operate the planter was 0.213 hp. The depth of placement of seeds v/as uniform as y.O cm, whereas the number of seed in 5 m length of furrow and spacing between two seeds v/ere observed for all the three furrow openers which varied from 51 to 53.7 seeds and 9.3 cm to 9.6 cm respectively. The theoretical field capacity of the planter was observed as 0.296 ha/hr, while the effective field capacity and field efficiency were determined as 0.202 ha/hr and 68,24 % respectively. Only one labour is required to operate the planter.Based, on the above results, this planter would be very useful to the farmers for sowing the groundnut seeds at proper seed rate and required spacing there-by help in increasing the groundnut production.