Research in Agricultural Engineering, 2015 (vol. 61), issue 2

Mathematical and neural network modelling of terebinth fruit under fluidized bed dryingOriginal Paper

M. Kaveh, R. Amiri Chayjan

Res. Agr. Eng., 2015, 61(2):55-65 | DOI: 10.17221/56/2013-RAE  

The paper presents an application which uses Feed Forward Neural Networks (FFNNs) to model the non-linear behaviour of the terebinth fruit drying. Mathematical models and Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) were used for prediction of effective moisture diffusivity, specific energy consumption, shrinkage, drying rate and moisture ratio in terebinth fruit. Feed Forward Neural Network (FFBP) and Cascade Forward Neural Network (CFNN) as well as training algorithms of Levenberg-Marquardt (LM) and Bayesian regularization (BR) were used. Air temperature and velocity limits were 40-80°C and 0.81-4.35 m/s, respectively. The best outcome for the use of ANN for...

Evaluation of selected properties of briquettes from recovered paper and boardOriginal Paper

M. Brožek

Res. Agr. Eng., 2015, 61(2):66-71 | DOI: 10.17221/61/2013-RAE  

Worldwide increasing energy demand is today permanently covered by a majority of non-renewable energy sources, namely by coal, crude oil and natural gas. This causes the rapid decline of their reserves and the time gets near when they will be run out. Therefore in the last years the exploitation of renewable energy sources has been permanently preferred. One of alternative fuel forms is fuel on the basis of paper waste. In this paper the results of tests are published, which were carried out using six sorts of recovered paper and board (group and grade 1.05, 1.06, 2.02, 2.05, 2.07 and 2.08 according to CSN EN 643:2002), pressed into the form of briquettes....

Evaluation of techniques for ploughshare lifetime increaseOriginal Paper

P. Hrabě, M. Müller, V. Hadač

Res. Agr. Eng., 2015, 61(2):72-79 | DOI: 10.17221/73/2013-RAE  

Sustainability in a sphere of agricultural commodities production depends on soil processing. The soil is also a considerable abrasive medium which affects in a negative way tools processing the soil. The aim of the research is to increase the lifetime of a mould board by means of a constructional setting of an overlaid material. The lifetime increasing of the ploughshare by means of the overlaying is a much discussed topic. For this reason such strategy for the experiment was chosen which would enable to increase the lifetime at preserving low costs for ploughshare treatment. The research was focused on the ploughshare lifetime increasing by means...

Employment characteristics of tine cultivators at deeper soil looseningOriginal Paper

P. Šařec, O. Šařec

Res. Agr. Eng., 2015, 61(2):80-86 | DOI: 10.17221/72/2013-RAE  

The work quality of selected tine cultivators that are suitable equally for deeper soil cultivation has been evaluated. The following implements were tested in a stubble field: Köckerling Vario 570, Simba Solo 450, Horsch Terrano 5 FX, Strom Finisher Mega 8000, Farmet Turbulent 450, Kverneland CLC 430, Väderstad TopDown 400. The cultivator evaluation criteria were the following: quantity of plant residues left on the soil surface, size distribution of clods, transverse elevation profile of the soil surface, elevation profile of the furrow bottom, cultivation depth, unit fuel consumption, travel reduction ratio, work-rate, and unit draft of a cultivator....

Characteristics of bladeless turbineOriginal Paper

L. Dlabal, M. Polák

Res. Agr. Eng., 2015, 61(2):87-91 | DOI: 10.17221/70/2013-RAE  

The project objective was to perform laboratory tests of the SETUR DVE 120 bladeless turbine and to analyse its measured parameters. Operating characteristics were then determined based on the measured values. The measurement was performed in a closed hydraulic testing circuit in a laboratory of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague. The first part of the article describes the workplace and the method of measurement of the main and the auxiliary parameters. The second part deals with the turbine characteristics. The characteristics describe the relationship between the water flow...

Microparticle composites on the basis of scrap utilizable in the field of agricultural productionOriginal Paper

P. Valášek, M. Brožek

Res. Agr. Eng., 2015, 61(2):92-97 | DOI: 10.17221/44/2013-RAE  

For renovation of functional surfaces of machines and devices for agricultural production it is possible to use, in addition to conventionally used methods, polymers with fillers - composites. The presence of microparticles in the polymeric matrix improves substantially the abrasive wear resistance and hardness. This contribution describes tribological properties of epoxy resin filled with chips of ferrous metals - the change of volume losses increase in dependence on the pressure increase (load) having effect on the worn surface. From the carried out experiments the considerable decrease of filled resin losses is evident compared with the resin without...