Influence of Recurrent Rolling/Crimping on Cover Crop Termination, Soil Strength and Yield in No-Till Cotton

Rollers/crimpers have been used to terminate cover crops typically with supplemental herbicide application to speed-up termination. Due to environmental concerns, there is a need to reduce herbicide use. In the Southern USA, the cash crop is typically planted three weeks after a rolled cover crop reaches more than 90% kill rate which eliminates competition with the cash crop for water and nutrients. A three-year replicated field experiment was initiated in the fall of 2014 to determine the effects of recurring rolling by experimental rollers/crimpers in terminating a cereal rye cover crop in central Alabama and how multiple rolling affected soil strength. Experimental 2-stage (one smooth drum and one crimping drum), 4-stage (one smooth drum and three crimping drums), spiral, and smooth rollers were tested to roll rye 1, 2, and 3 times (conducted at the same day). A smooth roller with mounted spray boom applying glyphosate rolling once was also evaluated, and untreated rye was the control. Rye was terminated at the milk growth stage and was evaluated one, two and three weeks after rolling. At one week after rolling, the highest rye kill rate was obtained with rolling three times by the 4-stage (96%), 2-stage (92%), spiral roller (81%); rolling once by the smooth roller with glyphosate (94%) compared to the untreated rye at 37%. At two weeks after rolling no differences among rollers were found (91% to 98%); the untreated rye was 54%. Similarly, at three weeks after rolling no differences were detected among rollers (99% to 100%); the untreated rye was 86%. Rolling 2 or 3 times compared with rolling one time did not cause soil compaction. However, at the 15 cm depth cone index (CI) did exceed 2 MPa (a critical value of root penetration restriction); although this CI increase was solely related to decrease in gravimetric soil moisture content (GMC). In addition, over three growing seasons, the seed cotton yield was not affected by rolling treatments with the average yield of 3601 kg ha−1 (1512 kg ha−1 of cotton lint).

The optimisation of the cylinder-spiral soil-cultivating roller

Designed cylinder-tillage spiral skating rink with spiral work items, which form a fine lumpy structure of the sowing layer of soil with grain size corresponding to agrotechnical requirements, while helping the soil surface, mulching the top layer of soil over the seeds, seal the depth of their placement, providing the required contact of seeds with soil is necessary to ensure the uniformity of germination. At the theoretical level, it is determined that an increase in the pinching angle leads to an increase in the size of the hollow smooth pipe of the roller. This occurs while increasing the depth of deformation of the layer of crushed soil and the radius of the clump of soil. However, a change in the radius of a hollow smooth roller of more than 0.3 m does not lead to a slight increase in the pinching angle. Therefore, increasing the radius of the hollow smooth roller over 0.3 m is not rational, as it will increase the metal content of the structure. After analyzing the obtained mathematical models of the soil treatment process with a roller, we optimized the parameters of a cylindrical-spiral roller: speed of 11 km/h, mass of ballasting loads of 100 kg, step of the spiral turn of 40 mm, and the departure of the spiral screw of 35 mm. These modes ensure the formation of a qualitatively compacted soil layer in the zone of planting seeds of agricultural crops, which is confirmed by the maximum value of the processing quality criterion for matching the density of the soil after rolling with a cylindrical-spiral roller CCS = 0.98 (while the density of the sown layer addition 1185...1215 kg/m3), which fully satisfies the agrotechnical optimum. The yield of barley of the Nutans-553 variety became higher after the use of an innovative cylindrical-spiral roller by 6.4 % and 9.3 %, respectively, of the yield after the impact of serial ККSh rollers and ring rollers of the seeding machine. In the course of evaluating the metal consumption of structures of the innovative cylindrical-spiral roller and the ring-spur roller, a difference of 70% per unit width of the grip was revealed.

Thermoeconomic Analysis of Wheat Flour Agroindustrial Plant

This paper presents the development of an exergy and thermoeconomic analysis of a wheat flour agro-industrial plant, which was aimed to evaluate the energy use and establish the operation cost of its components, and to understand the cost formation process and the cost flow. It was found that throughout the production process exists an exergy destruction ratio of 95,08 %. It identified improvement opportunities in relation to cost, has recommended alterations with regard matter flows or an economic investment for change some components with low exergoeconomic factors: 2% planer of wheat bran, 3% knurled roller grinding benches and 5% smooth roller grinding benches.

The effect of using the drum detachers in the industrial wheat flour mills

The work is concerned with the effects of applying the drum detachers as flake disrupters in industrial wheat flour mills. The stocks entering and leaving the drum detachers applied on the different reduction passages in two industrial mills were intercepted and employed in the experiments. The changes in the flour release and flour ash content were followed. The results show that the drum detachers are effective in disrupting the flakes formed in the smooth roller mills grinding zone. However, the contribution of the drum detachers to the overall milling efficiency is in close correlation with the nature of the formed flakes. If the flakes are primarily composed of endosperm particles, the employment of drum detacher results in a statistically significant increase of the flour yields without deterioration of flour quality. If flakes, formed on the end passages of the reduction system, contain large portion of branny particles, the increase of the flour ash content following the drum detacher is statistically significant.

Traction Between a Web and a Smooth Roller

Web traction over rollers is known to deteriorate due to air entrainment at high web speeds. In this paper, a general model is presented to predict the traction capability of an impermeable web over a smooth roller. The model considers the effects of the web and roller speeds, roller radius, combined roughness of the two surfaces, web tension and thickness, friction coefficient, and compressible air bearing. The change of tension ΔN due to mechanical slip between the roller and the web is calculated by a simultaneous solution of the in-plane and out-of-plane equilibrium of the web and the compressible Reynolds lubrication equation. The problem is nondimensionalized and the effects of nine of the eleven nondimensional parameters on traction are investigated for a range of values. Formulas involving the nondimensional parameters for the traction capability are presented in two-variable polynomial forms.

Investigations Into Asperity Persistence in Heavily Loaded Contacts

Experimental results are presented along the lines of the early work of Moore (1948) where a hard smooth roller is pressed into a softer rough surface to study the resulting real to apparent areas of contact and their associated local contact pressures. Results are presented for a hard steel roller deforming mild-steel and aluminum-alloy rough surface specimens. An analysis of the local contact mechanics is performed before and after indentation using a recently developed numerical elastic contact simulation method which allows local asperity contact pressures and areas to be studied in detail. The method is shown to reveal the level and distribution of pressures and asperity contact areas prevalent during the indentation process, and therefore allows the contribution of elastic and plastic load support to be quantified. The persistence of asperities during such indentation tests is discussed in terms of the pressures the asperities can support in relation to reported mechanisms of persistence. Results of subsequent sub-surface stresses are also presented and discussed in terms of how the method might be used to create an elastic-plasticdeformation model that can account for asperity persistence in future numerical contact simulation models.