Research in Agricultural Engineering, 2018 (vol. 64), issue 1
Study of effectiveness of controlled traffic farming system and wide span self-propelled gantry-type machineOriginal Paper
Volodymir Bulgakov, Valerii Adamčuk, Ladislav Nozdrovický, Volodymir Kuvačov
Res. Agr. Eng., 2018, 64(1):1-7 | DOI: 10.17221/19/2017-RAE 
Trends in the global agricultural sector tend to efficient use of resources and improving the quality in agriculture. A significant effect in this regard can be achieved when using controlled traffic farming and wide span self-propelled gantry-type machine. The aim of this study is theoretical justification of the cost-effectiveness of introduction of the controlled traffic farming system and using of wide span self-propelled gantry-type machine, by selecting some optimal parameters of land use. Provided studies have shown that the most significant economic effect of introduction of the controlled traffic farming system is evident on the fields with...
Investigating soil compaction using strain transducerOriginal Paper
Gholamhossein Shahgholi, Mohammad Reza Aboali
Res. Agr. Eng., 2018, 64(1):8-14 | DOI: 10.17221/103/2016-RAE
Soil compaction has been a challenging problem in agriculture. The parameters affecting soil compaction and their effects should be investigated. Thereby, series of soil sinkage tests were conducted at the University of Mohaghegh Ardabili to evaluate the effect of soil moisture, loading velocity, depth and loading times on soil compaction using strain transducers. Three strain transducers were placed in x, y and z directions and their displacement was recorded during loading and unloading. Experiments were arranged as a complete randomized factorial design and 3 levels of moisture content and loading velocity and 2 levels of depth...
Effect of biomass characteristics on durability of Cassava stalk residues pelletsOriginal Paper
Nisanath Kaewwinud, Porntep Khokhajaikiat, Apichart Boonma
Res. Agr. Eng., 2018, 64(1):15-19 | DOI: 10.17221/113/2016-RAE
This study aims at investigating the effect of the main biomass characteristics (moisture content and particle size) on durability of Cassava stalk residues pellets. This durability is necessary to consider design of the material handling, processing equipment, storage and transportation of biomass pellets. The raw biomass materials were ground and screened into four range sizes and pelletization was done at three different percentage levels of moisture conditions defined as percentage of added water by mass of raw material. Pellets in each condition were analysed for durability. The result showed that the highest durability occurred in particle size...
Conceptual design and evaluation of the alternative construction of lightweight hall building with polygonal ground plan and canvas roofingOriginal Paper
Petr Junga, Terezie Vondráčková, Jan Mareček
Res. Agr. Eng., 2018, 64(1):20-25 | DOI: 10.17221/2/2017-RAE
The paper presents the results of a conceptual study of lightweight wooden construction hall building with polygonal ground plan, suitable for agriculture. It comprises evaluation of chosen technical and functional characteristics and possibilities for animal production. The results of the study confirm advantages (mainly lower material and costs demandingness, environmentally friendliness, light-weight construction, fast assembly operations) and disadvantages (mainly larger range of groundwork, higher demandingness on roof structure, foundation of slab constructions and anchoring of vertical bearing constructions). Values of radial tensile stress...
Ammonia and greenhouse gas emissions from slatted dairy barn floors cleaned by robotic scrapersOriginal Paper
Alessandro Chiumenti, Francesco da Borso, Andrea Pezzuolo, Luigi Sartori, Roberto Chiumenti
Res. Agr. Eng., 2018, 64(1):26-33 | DOI: 10.17221/33/2017-RAE
The design of animal housing and manure management systems are key factors in livestock farming. Frequent removal methods, in fact, allow for the reduction of gasses produced from fermentations of the organic matter contained in manure, that affect animal welfare and farmer health and are emitted from animal housings into the atmosphere as a consequence of ventilation. The present study aims to evaluate the performance of a Robotic Scraper (RS) operating on the floors in a full-scale, operative free-stall dairy barn. The research is focused on the evaluation of gaseous emissions from the two types of floors (concrete and rubber mat coated), and with...
Treatment of spring wheat seeds by ozone generated from humid air and dry oxygenOriginal Paper
Alexander Lazukin, Yuri Serdukov, Mikhail Pinchuk, Olga Stepanova, Sergey Krivov, Irina Lyubushkina
Res. Agr. Eng., 2018, 64(1):34-40 | DOI: 10.17221/106/2016-RAE
The paper presents an analysis based on conflicting data regarding the results of the treatment of soft spring wheat seeds by ozone generated from humid air and dry oxygen. Morphological characteristics of treated seeds (the length of a sprout, the total length of roots and the sprout-to-root ratio), 7-day germination ability along with the extent of 7-day-old seedlings contamination are considered in terms of ozone concentrations. The experiments were conducted using the wheat seeds of 2013 and 2014 yields. For the same concentrations of ozone, morphological characteristics of treated seeds and efficiency of seed surface treatment changed similarly...
Non-isothermal kinetic analysis of the thermal decomposition of spruce wood in air atmosphereOriginal Paper
Tomáš Ondro, Ivan Vitázek, Tomáš Húlan, Michael K. Lawson, Štefan Csáki
Res. Agr. Eng., 2018, 64(1):41-46 | DOI: 10.17221/115/2016-RAE
Thermal decomposition of spruce wood (Picea abies) was studied using the thermogravimetric (TG) analysis in air atmosphere from 30°C to 600°C with the heating rates of 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30°C.min-1. The TG results show that the main decomposition region is in the temperature range of 250-360°C, where a total disintegration of hemicellulose and cellulose with partial lignin decomposition can be observed....