Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Volodymir Bulgakov Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Mechanics and Resistance Materials, Mechanical and Technological Faculty, National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine, Kiev, Ukraine Author-Name: Valerii Adamčuk Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Agricultural Engineering and Electrification, National Scientific Centre, National Academy of Agrarian Science of Ukraine, Kiev, Ukraine Author-Name: Ladislav Nozdrovický Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Machines and Production Biosystems, Faculty of Engineering, Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra, Nitra, Slovak Republic Author-Name: Volodymir Kuvačov Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Utilization of Machines in Agriculture, Mechanical Engineering Faculty, Tavria State Agrotechnological University of Ukraine, Melitopol, Ukraine Title: Study of effectiveness of controlled traffic farming system and wide span self-propelled gantry-type machine Abstract: 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 high anthropogenic degradation of soils, where the results of crop yields increasing due to natural processes of soil decompression will be essential. The economic effect obtained by the implementation of the controlled traffic farming system by saving energy costs and seed. and due to increased crop yields is a minimum at the level of 150 € per ha. Keywords: precision agriculture, field machine passes, time utilization, reduction of the soil compaction, economic efficiency Journal: Research in Agricultural Engineering Pages: 1-7 Volume: 64 Issue: 1 Year: 2018 DOI: 10.17221/19/2017-RAE File-URL: http://rae.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/19/2017-RAE.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/rae-201801-0001.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlrae:v:64:y:2018:i:1:id:19-2017-RAE Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Gholamhossein Shahgholi Author-Name: Mohammad Reza Aboali Author-Workplace-Name: University of Mohaghegh Ardbili, Ardabil, Iran Title: Investigating soil compaction using strain transducer Abstract: 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 and loading time were investigated at three replications. It was found that with moisture increment soil displacement increased whereas increasing loading velocity and depth decreased soil compaction. There was a significant difference between the first and second loading time. The mutual binary effect of moisture content and loading time as well as that of depth and loading times were significant for transducer displacement. Mutual triplet effect of moisture, velocity and depth on the transducer displacement was significant. Keywords: soil sinkage, displacement, bulk density, moisture, loading time Journal: Research in Agricultural Engineering Pages: 8-14 Volume: 64 Issue: 1 Year: 2018 DOI: 10.17221/103/2016-RAE File-URL: http://rae.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/103/2016-RAE.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/rae-201801-0002.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlrae:v:64:y:2018:i:1:id:103-2016-RAE Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Nisanath Kaewwinud Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Industrial Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen, Thailand Author-Name: Porntep Khokhajaikiat Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Industrial Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen, Thailand Author-Name: Apichart Boonma Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Industrial Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen, Thailand Title: Effect of biomass characteristics on durability of Cassava stalk residues pellets Abstract: 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 1.7 mm but less than 3.35 mm and 10% moisture content by mass of raw biomass material. The mean durability in the best conditions was 99.02%. This information is important for the design and efficient preparation of biomass material for pelletization to achieve the high quality pellets with high durability for handling, transportation and storage. Keywords: cassava stalk, residues, biomass, durability, pellet Journal: Research in Agricultural Engineering Pages: 15-19 Volume: 64 Issue: 1 Year: 2018 DOI: 10.17221/113/2016-RAE File-URL: http://rae.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/113/2016-RAE.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/rae-201801-0003.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlrae:v:64:y:2018:i:1:id:113-2016-RAE Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Petr Junga Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Agronomy, Mendel University in Brno, Brno, Czech Republic Author-Name: Terezie Vondráčková Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Civil Engineering, Institute of Technology and Business in České Budějovice, České Budějovice, Czech Republic Author-Name: Jan Mareček Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Agronomy, Mendel University in Brno, Brno, Czech Republic Title: Conceptual design and evaluation of the alternative construction of lightweight hall building with polygonal ground plan and canvas roofing Abstract: 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 at an interval of 9.0 to 21.0 MPa and tangential tensile stress at an interval of 1.4 to 16.0 MPa were calculated on vertical load 100 kN at the top of the construction). The construction makes possible to achieve a span as far as 60 m with effective canvas strain at large radius curvature from 80 m to 100 m. Keywords: farm building, lightweight construction, polygonal stable, tent roof Journal: Research in Agricultural Engineering Pages: 20-25 Volume: 64 Issue: 1 Year: 2018 DOI: 10.17221/2/2017-RAE File-URL: http://rae.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/2/2017-RAE.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/rae-201801-0004.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlrae:v:64:y:2018:i:1:id:2-2017-RAE Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Alessandro Chiumenti Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Agricultural, Food, Environmental and Animal Sciences, University of Udine, Udine, Italy Author-Name: Francesco da Borso Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Agricultural, Food, Environmental and Animal Sciences, University of Udine, Udine, Italy Author-Name: Andrea Pezzuolo Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Agroforesty and Landscape, University of Padova, Legnaro, Italy Author-Name: Luigi Sartori Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Agroforesty and Landscape, University of Padova, Legnaro, Italy Author-Name: Roberto Chiumenti Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Agricultural, Food, Environmental and Animal Sciences, University of Udine, Udine, Italy Title: Ammonia and greenhouse gas emissions from slatted dairy barn floors cleaned by robotic scrapers Abstract: 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 and without RS operation. The floors with rubber coating demonstrated higher emission rates of ammonia (NH3), carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide (N2O), and methane (CH4) compared to the uncovered concrete floors, both before and after RS operations. The operation of RS, furthermore, determined significant reduction of greenhouse gasses (GHG) but did not have relevant effect in terms of NH3 emission, which reduced only of 1.4% from concrete floors, but increase of 12.7% from rubber coated floors. Keywords: animal housing, manure management, automatic cleaning systems, pollutant gasses, animal behaviour Journal: Research in Agricultural Engineering Pages: 26-33 Volume: 64 Issue: 1 Year: 2018 DOI: 10.17221/33/2017-RAE File-URL: http://rae.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/33/2017-RAE.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/rae-201801-0005.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlrae:v:64:y:2018:i:1:id:33-2017-RAE Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Alexander Lazukin Author-Workplace-Name: Moscow Power Engineering Institute, National Research University Moscow, Russia Author-Workplace-Name: Timiryazev Institute of Plant Physiology Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia Author-Name: Yuri Serdukov Author-Workplace-Name: Timiryazev Institute of Plant Physiology Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia Author-Name: Mikhail Pinchuk Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Electrophysics and Electric Power, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, Russia Author-Name: Olga Stepanova Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Electrophysics and Electric Power, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, Russia Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Physics, Saint Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russia Author-Name: Sergey Krivov Author-Workplace-Name: Moscow Power Engineering Institute, National Research University Moscow, Russia Author-Name: Irina Lyubushkina Author-Workplace-Name: Siberian Institute of Plant Physiology and Biochemistry, SB Russian Academy of Sciences, Irkutsk, Russia Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Biology and Soil, Irkutsk State University, Irkutsk, Russia Title: Treatment of spring wheat seeds by ozone generated from humid air and dry oxygen Abstract: 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 for both ways of ozone production. However, the efficiency of seeds treatment and stimulation of seeds germination with ozone are not correlated; and the germination ability of the seeds is not changed after ozone treatment. Keywords: ozone treatment, spring wheat, morphological characteristics, surface dielectric-barrier discharge, seed germination Journal: Research in Agricultural Engineering Pages: 34-40 Volume: 64 Issue: 1 Year: 2018 DOI: 10.17221/106/2016-RAE File-URL: http://rae.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/106/2016-RAE.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/rae-201801-0006.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlrae:v:64:y:2018:i:1:id:106-2016-RAE Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Tomáš Ondro Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Physics, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, Nitra, Slovak Republic Author-Name: Ivan Vitázek Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Transport and Handling, Faculty of Engineering, Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra, Nitra, Slovak Republic Author-Name: Tomáš Húlan Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Physics, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, Nitra, Slovak Republic Author-Name: Michael K. Lawson Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, Nitra, Slovak Republic Author-Name: Štefan Csáki Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Physics, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, Nitra, Slovak Republic Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Physics of Materials, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic Title: Non-isothermal kinetic analysis of the thermal decomposition of spruce wood in air atmosphere Abstract: 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. The values of apparent activation energy for this process are between 168.6-196.5 kJ.mol-1, 179.8-188.1 kJ.mol-1 and 170.1-178.7 kJ.mol-1 determined by the Friedman, Flynn-Wall-Ozawa and Kissinger-Akahira-Sunose methods, respectively. Keywords: apparent activation energy, spruce wood, thermal decomposition, wood biomass Journal: Research in Agricultural Engineering Pages: 41-46 Volume: 64 Issue: 1 Year: 2018 DOI: 10.17221/115/2016-RAE File-URL: http://rae.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/115/2016-RAE.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/rae-201801-0007.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlrae:v:64:y:2018:i:1:id:115-2016-RAE