No abstract

The European Directive concerning pesticide sustainable use establishes regulations to reduce the environmental drift throughout treatments to agricultural crops, particularly in nearby sensitive areas, such as water bodies, natural reserves and urban areas. The drift represents the fraction of mixture delivered by the sprayer that is not caught by the crop, and is the clearest cause of environmental pollution. Anti-drift nozzles are usually employed, and buffer zones are also maintained along the edges of the sprayed field to reduce drift production. The aim of this work was the theoretical study of the motion of the spray droplets delivered by a nozzle, dipped in downwards and/or lateral forced air flows. A mathematical model has been developed, consisting of a system of 2nd order differential equations, to simulate the motion of water droplets of different diameters within simultaneous different directions of air flow. The graphs, obtained by means of the numerical solution of the model, allow us to analyze the level of the droplets’ drift, according to their diameter and to the speed of the lateral and the downward air flows, respectively. A lateral airflow at a speed of 5 m · s − 1 produced a drift in its direction until 1.70 m for droplets from 100 to 500 μm in diameter. For larger drops, the impact of the downward airflow is not very significant. The results obtained by the numerical solution of the mathematical model have been compared with the results of experimental tests carried out to evaluate the drift of spray produced by different nozzles.

An urgent problem is drying and processing of the wet dispersed waste, obtained in the production of food products, which can then be efficiently used as a fertiliser, for feeding livestock or as biofuel. A new design of a vibrating fluidised bed dryer has been developed, which, with low energy consumption, provides a pre-set productivity and the required final moisture content. The process of vertical oscillations of the body of a vibration dryer, together with the food waste contained in it, is analysed analytically, the necessary equivalent scheme is built, on the basis of which differential equations of the vertical oscillations of the body are compiled, their analytical solutions are obtained, and a numerical calculation is performed on a PC using the developed program. Rational parameters of the vibration dryer, providing vibroboiling of the mass of the food waste, have been determined: the body mass m = 250 ... 510 kg; the debalance mass md= 10… 15 kg; the number of revolutions of the debalance electric motor nd= 1950 ... 2650 rpm ∙ min∙1; maximum stiffness of the support springs Cp= 8∙105 N∙m–1; the diameter of the centre of mass of the debalances dd= 0.01 m. In addition, as a result of the thermophysical theoretical and experimental studies of the vibration drying process, the following optimal design and technological parameters of the vibration dryer were obtained: the heat transfer area St.p.n= 4.15 m2; the radius of the heating pipe rt= 0.1 m; the length of the heating pipe lt = 3 m; the number of heating pipes nt= 50; the heat transfer coefficient Kp= 2500; the final temperature of the dried waste to2= 100 ºС.

The technological process of vibrational digging-up of sugar beet has spread in many sugar beet-sowing coun- tries. The experience of using this process demonstrated its advantages compared against other ways of dig- ging-up, but there have been scarce experimental researches of the vibrational digging-up of sugar beet from soil which makes this topic urgent for sugar beet production. Aim. The experimental determination of rational parameters and modes of the vibrational digging-up working tool to ensure the required quality of conducting the technological process of digging sugar beet from soil. Methods. The methods of planning a multifactor ex- periment, fi eld studies, statistical processing, regression analysis of the experimental data with building graphic curves were applied. Results. A new model of a tool for vibrational digging-up of sugar beet from soil has been elaborated. The accepted program and method were used to conduct experimental research on the impact of the main construction and technological parameters of the vibrational digging-up working tool of the beet harvester on the quality indices of performing the technological process of harvesting sugar beet. The energy parameters of new vibrational digging-up working tools were studied in fi eld conditions via registering the values of tenzometric sensors in different modes of the device and different parameters and working modes of the vibrational digging-up tools. Conclusions. It was established that there is a value of the vibration frequency and running depth in soil of the vibrational digging-up working tool for each value of the translational veloc- ity of the vibrational digging-up machine which corresponds to minimal losses and damage to crop roots. It was also found that the degree of crop root damage depends on the conditions of performing the technological process of vibrational digging-up (soil solidity and humidity), and the weight of damaged crop roots increases with the increase in solidity and the decrease in humidity of soil.

The new machine-and-tractor aggregate of a modular type, developed by us, consisting of the power and the technological modules, can significantly increase the efficiency of using the tractor when it is aggregated with a five-body plough. The new design solution for connecting these modules in a horizontal plane through a damper, consisting of a hydraulic cylinder and a throttle, allows significant increasing of the movement stability of this aggregate in a transverse-horizontal plane. To test the efficient operation of the proposed design, as well as to determine the kinematic and design parameters that provide the required level of stable movement of this modular machine-and-tractor aggregate, we carried out theoretical and experimental field investigations. For this, a new mathematical model of plane-parallel movement of the machine-and-tractor aggregate of this type was built. It was found that a change in the operating speed of this aggregate during ploughing from 1.0 to 3.0 m∙s−1 does not lead to a deterioration in the stability of the movement of either the technological or, especially, the power modules. The delay in the reaction of the power module of the machine-and-tractor aggregate of the modular type is practically invariant with respect to the change in the mode of movement of this aggregate within the range 1–3 m∙s−1. It was also found that the values of the tire slip resistance coefficients of the wheels of the power module do not have a noticeable impact upon the development of fluctuations of the disturbing moment.

Abstract. There is proposed a new design of a trailed sugar beet head cleaner from the remnants of tops without extraction of beets from the soil, with a vertical cleaning shaft. However, the quality of its operation depends to a large extent on the magnitude of the vertical oscillations of the cleaner frame, which take place at a high speed of its forward movement. According to the developed equivalent scheme and the initial equations in the form of Lagrange of the 2nd kind, a mathematical model has been constructed for the root crop head cleaner, hanged from behind to an integral tractor, consisting of two nonlinear differential equations describing the oscillations of its pneumatic tracer wheels and the cleaning tool when moving along the surface irregularities. Numerical simulation on the PC has made it possible to determine the optimal design and kinematic parameters of the cleaner, allowing to reduce the magnitude of oscillations of its tracer wheels, frame and cleaning tool, which, on the whole, significantly increases the efficiency and quality of the root crop cleaning from the tops without extracting the root crops from the soil.Keywords: sugar beet, harvesting, cleaner, oscillations. IntroductionSugar beet is an important agricultural crop used for the production of sugar; and it also has great prospects for the production of bioenergy [1]. The leading producers of sugar beet in Europe are Ukraine, Germany, France and Poland. Contemporary technologies of harvesting sugar beet tops assume, at first, complete uncopied cutting of the main green mass with subsequent individual postcleaning of the heads of root crops from the remnants of the foliage [2]. The operation of additional cleaning of the root crop heads from the remnants of tops (leaves) without extracting the heads from the soil should meet high demands for the quality of removal of the green and dry residues from the surfaces of the heads, excluding damage caused by the additional cleaning tools. We have developed a new design of a trailed cleaner of sugar beet heads from the remnants of tops (leaves), with a vertical cleaning shaft. However, the quality of its operation depends to a large extent on the magnitude of the vertical oscillations of the cleaner frame, which take place at a high speed of its forwards movement. The use of pneumatic tracer wheels causes intensive oscillations of the root crop head cleaner in a vertical plane, which have the greatest effect on the quality of this technological process. In this connection, a need arises for theoretical investigation of the movement of a root crop head cleaner attached to the wheeled integral row-crop aggregating tractor and for determining the degree of influence of its structural and kinematic parameters on the vibrations in the vertical plane. The method of constructing computational mathematical models of agricultural machines is described in detail in [3]. A methodology of constructing computational mathematical models of agricultural machines is described in detail in [3], in which ...

The paper provided presents a new design of two-disk wide-row coulter that ensures uniform distribution of seeds to an even bed at the furrow bottom, as well as preserving of optimal distances between the seeds. Seeds fall from the seed tube of coil sowing apparatus onto a metal distribution plate with staggeringly arranged metal pins, which distribute the seeds to furrow bottom surface in a form of separate strips. To substantiate the kinematic and constructive parameters of proposed coulter design, a mathematical model for transport of seeds along the surface of a distribution plate was developed and the Cauchy problem for a system of the second-order quasi-linear differential equations was solved by the finite difference methods using embedded software procedures in mathematical software packages (Mathcad, Maple, etc.). The finite-difference method implementation was carried out using computer software allowing the determination of coordinates of seeds and, if necessary, changing of direction of their movement by adjusting the coulter operation to improve the distribution of seeds to soil in order to reduce the injury to them, which ultimately can contribute to an increased yield. Coverage of the plate surface and distribution pins with a rubber material can also contribute to a significant reduction in seed injury during sowing.

The article presents a study of the design of the working body of a screw conveyor, made in the form of a shaft with inclined flat blades. The productivity of the conveyor with a working body, made in the form of a shaft with inclined flat blades, increases proportionally with an increase in the speed of rotation of the working bodies, and decreases with an increase in the angle of inclination of the fixed body to the horizon. The productivity of the screw conveyor with a working body, made in the form of a shaft with inclined flat blades, increases proportionally with an increase in the speed of rotation of the working bodies, and decreases with an increase in the angle of inclination of the fixed body to the horizon. Within the range of rotational speed from 100 rpm to 600 rpm, productivity increases by 2.0 – 2.4 times, and, when angle of inclination of the fixed body to the horizon changes from 0º to 30º, it decreases by 45 – 55%. It has been established that the productivity of such a conveyor is 1.03 ... 1.05 times greater than the productivity of a conveyor with a screw working body.