Bioresource and Agricultural Engineering Commons^™

Tractor Measurement And Data Acquisition System For Hydraulic Power, Draft Force, And Power Take-Off Torque, James Roeber

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Numerous advancements in machinery performance of agricultural tractors have been made in recent years. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) tests predetermined points (e.g., maximum power and torque) for drawbar, Power Take-Off (PTO), and hydraulic power as separate tests for tractor performance. Testing methods with the tractor operating at a steady state have been done for years, which were uncharacteristic of agricultural tractor operations in field conditions. As part of this thesis work, field usable data acquisition systems (DAQs) were developed to record implement energy consumption (e.g., drawbar loading, PTO torque, and hydraulic power). The system used LabVIEW …

An Evaluation Of Agricultural Tractors Hydraulic Lift Performance, Grant Melotz

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The current OECD Code 2 detailing the procedures for the hydraulic lift test of agricultural tractors, section 4.3, published lift values that were sometimes unattainable. The static weight of 2WD, two wheel drive, and MFWD, mechanical front wheel drive, tractors and the amount of lifting force have increased at a greater rate than the amount of static weight on the front axle. This increase in lifting force has led to a decrease in the percent of weight as the upward support force on the front axle of a tractor. Many of the 2WD and MFWD unballasted tractors tested at the …

Assessment Of An Industrial Type Radiant Heating System For Drying Rough Rice, Anne Adhiambo Okeyo

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Rough rice is normally harvested at moisture contents (MCs) higher than that for safe storage. The objective for this study was to investigate the effectiveness of scaled-up infrared (IR) heating followed by tempering steps to dry freshly-harvested rough rice. An industrial type, pilot scale, IR drying equipment, designed to convey rough rice on a vibrating conveyor belt was used in this study. The heating zone of the equipment had catalytic IR emitters powered by natural gas. Freshly-harvested rough rice of long-grain pureline (cv. Cheniere), long-grain hybrid (cv. 6XP 756) and medium-grain (cv. CL 271) cultivars at initial moisture contents (IMCs) …

A Mobile Canoe-Mounted, Geo-Referenced, 3-D Water Quality Analyzer, Alex Shpik, Alysse Ness, Ryan Vernich

EURēCA: Exhibition of Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement

Water quality analysis is vital to ensure the health of water sources, as well as identifying pollutants and modeling how they affect a river system. Current methods of collecting water samples consist of stationary samplers that measure changes in water quality at only one location over time. We have designed a mobile, canoe-mounted, water quality analyzing system that will enable researchers to efficiently collect a large number of water quality samples with an associated GPS location and depth for each data point. While the canoe travels in parallel swaths bank to bank, the unit will alternately collect samples from 3 …

An Update On Solid Grass Biomass Fuels In Vermont, Christopher William Callahan

UVM Extension Faculty Publications

This report documents recent testing involving the densification and combustion of solid, grass biomass fuels in a small commercial boiler (342,100 BTU/hr output rating). Fuel briquettes (or “pucks”) were made from Switchgrass, Miscanthus, Reed Canary, MulchHay and “Ag Biomass” / Field Residue as well as mixtures of these feedstocks with ground wood chips. Our findings were:

1.On-farm, small scale densification of grass and agricultural biomass solid fuels via pucking is feasible with a conversion (densification) cost of $49-148 per ton anda finished fuel cost in the range of $85-228 per ton ($5.2 –14.4 per million BTU).

2.Sustained, reliable combustion of …

Design Of A Mobile Shade And Cooling Structure For Grazing Dairy Herds, William Barbour, Ellen Moore, Jay Mcmillan

EURēCA: Exhibition of Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement

The U.S. organic dairy industry has experienced significant growth in recent years: over 10% growth annually since 2009 and 14.5% from 2010 to 2011; total market share is approximately 5% in the United States. The USDA places certain requirements on diary products that are certified organic, some of which are aimed at grazing practices. One challenge farmers must overcome to comply is keeping the cows in optimum conditions in a free-range grazing scenario; poor conditions such as excessive heat can decrease milk production and pose an economic burden on the dairy. The proposed system intends to control environmental conditions for …

Science-Informed Arguments In Undergraduates' Opinions About Biofuels, Olivia Straka, Jenny Dauer

UCARE Research Products

Socioscientific issues (SSIs) are complex, multifaceted issues with components of science as well as components of values requiring evaluation of social, political, and ethical concerns (Nichols & Zeidler, 2009). • However, many students do not possess a fundamental understanding of the underlying scientific foundations of SSIs (NRC, 1998), or may evaluate issues based on personal relevance as opposed to contemplation of evidence presented (Sadler et al., 2004). • This study examined how undergraduate students chose to substantiate their opinions on the SSI of using biofuels as a fuel source before and after taking a semester long course, AGRI/NRES 103. • …

Wet Grain Delivery Advice: A Previously Impossible Extension Challenge Solved Through App Technology, Joseph S. Dvorak, Sam Mcneill, Clint Hardy

Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications

The delivery of wet grain during harvest is a complex and constantly changing problem about which Extension professionals have been unable to offer more than general advice. By capitalizing on important characteristics of mobile devices, a new app enables producers to fully benefit from detailed information universities have generated on grain drying and costs associated with delivery of grain to different locales. Development of such an app demonstrates the power of apps and mobile devices in allowing Extension to deliver previously unattainable services to its clientele.

Effect Of Bioenergy Crops And Fast Growing Trees On Hydrology And Water Quality In The Little Vermilion River Watershed, Tian Guo

Open Access Dissertations

Energy security and sustainability require a suite of biomass crops, including woody species. Short rotation woody crops (SRWCs) such as Populus have great potential as biofuel feedstocks. Quantifying biomass yields of bioenergy crop and hydrologic and water quality responses to growth is important should it be widely planted in the Midwestern U.S. Subsurface tile drainage systems enable the Midwest area to become highly productive agricultural lands, but also create environmental problems like nitrate-N contamination of the water it drains. The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) has been used to model watersheds with tile drainage, but the new tile drainage …

Investigating U.S. Resident Perceptions Of Corporate Social Responsibility In Food And Agriculture, Carissa Jae Morgan

Open Access Theses

Corporations are prioritizing corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities by investing in and actively promoting their social practices. In the U.S. of the modern food supply chain creates a unique challenge for corporations to address concerns about social issues of consumers and non-consumers alike. This study is motivated by the need to better understand individuals’ perceptions of CSR as it pertains to the food supply chain. In April 2015 an online survey collected information from 1,201 U.S. residents with the objective of investigating individuals’ perceptions of relative importance of eight prominent CSR areas relevant to food and agriculture. Demographic, household consumption, …

Enhancing Bioethanol Fermentation Through Removal Of Acetic Acid Using Liquid-Liquid Extraction, Mahdieh Aghazadeh

Open Access Dissertations

The concern for the ever growing human population as well as the depletion of fossil fuel resources and their impact on global warming have long been motivations for the researchers to investigate means for sustainable producing carbon-neutral energy. Second-generation biofuel refers to liquid fuels that are produced from non-food resources and reduce the total greenhouse gas emission by at least 60 %. Acetic acid has been shown to be one of the most ubiquitous fermentation inhibitors in a bioethanol production facility which slows down the bioethanol production and reduces its yield through inhibition of the ethanol producing microorganisms. The use …

Development And Evaluation Of A Watershed-Scale Hybrid Hydrologic Model, Younghyun Cho

Open Access Dissertations

A watershed-scale hybrid hydrologic model (Distributed-Clark), which is a lumped conceptual and distributed feature model, was developed to predict spatially distributed short- and long-term rainfall runoff generation and routing using relatively simple methodologies and state-of-the-art spatial data in a GIS environment. In Distributed-Clark, spatially distributed excess rainfall estimated with the SCS curve number method and a GIS-based set of separated unit hydrographs (spatially distributed unit hydrograph) are utilized to calculate a direct runoff flow hydrograph, and time-varied SCS CN values and conditional unit hydrograph approach for different runoff depth-based flow convolution are also used to compute long-term rainfall-runoff flow hydrographs. …

Rearward Visibility Issues Related To Agricultural Machinery: Contributing Factors, Potential Solutions, Shawn Gregory Ehlers

Open Access Dissertations

As the size, complexity, and speed of tractors and other agricultural self-propelled machinery have increased, so have the visibility-related issues, placing significant importance on the visual skills, alertness, and reactive abilities of the operator. Rearward movement of large agricultural equipment has been identified in the literature as causing not only damage to both machine and stationary objects, but also injuries (even fatalities) to bystanders not visible to the operator. Fortunately, monitoring assistance, while not a new concept, has advanced significantly, offering operators today more options for increasing awareness of the area surrounding their machines. In this research, an attempt is …

Engineering Outreach Education Through Social Media, Katie E. Meiergerd, Dagen Valentine, Jennifer R. Keshwani, Bradley Barker

UCARE Research Products

Familiarizing teachers and educators with Engineering and other related STEM fields is crucial in educating students, so ensuring teachers with access to these resources is important. The objective of this work is to identify ways to use social media to provide support to K – 12 educators interested in implementing engineering education with their students.

Exploring Large-Scale Parameterization Of Irrigation In The Northern High Plains, Mitch Maguire, Daniel Rico, Katherine Smith, Francisco Munoz-Arriola

UCARE Research Products

Research Question – Objective - Hypothesis

How does irrigation respond to the demands of Crop Irrigation Requirements under extreme hydrometeorological events?

Implement a parameterization of irrigation into the land surface hydrology model VIC.

Changes in evapotranspiration (ET) will be more conspicuous during dry years, highlighting the limiting role of soil moisture in the model.

Micro- And Nanoparticulates For Dna Vaccine Delivery, Eric Farris, Deborah M. Brown, Amanda Ramer-Tait, Angela K. Pannier

Biological Systems Engineering: Papers and Publications

DNA vaccination has emerged as a promising alternative to traditional protein-based vaccines for the induction of protective immune responses. DNA vaccines offer several advantages over traditional vaccines, including increased stability, rapid and inexpensive production, and flexibility to produce vaccines for a wide variety of infectious diseases. However, the immunogenicity of DNA vaccines delivered as naked plasmid DNA is often weak due to degradation of the DNA by nucleases and inefficient delivery to immune cells. Therefore, biomaterial-based delivery systems based on micro- and nanoparticles that encapsulate plasmid DNA represent the most promising strategy for DNA vaccine delivery. Microparticulate delivery systems allow …

Developing An Ecological Sanitation Transect, Ian Kolesinskas

Masters Theses

A sanitation problem exists for people across the globe: basic human waste collection and treatment is inaccessible to much of the world’s population; and the status-quo gray infrastructure system of sanitation is unsustainable and unsuitable for widespread application. A paradigm shift is needed: this thesis makes the case for developing an Ecological Sanitation Transect to bring back the closed loop that connects consumption, waste excretion, sanitation, and food production. The Ecological Sanitation Transect is a synthesis of ecological sanitation, where human excreta is reused, and the urban transect, where development density is conceptualized along a continuum from rural to urban. …

Food Processing In Haiti, Maggie R. Del Ponte

Engagement & Service-Learning Summit

No abstract provided.

Design And Build Of An Automated Animal Feed Dispenser, Soroush Sedigh

BioResource and Agricultural Engineering

This senior project discusses the design, construction, and evaluation of automated animal feed dispenser on a small-scale level. The system consists of three main components with various sub-components. Those three components are the outer-casing, the hardware and circuitry, and lastly the code to make sure the hardware operates properly.

System tests have indicated that the feed dispenser is able to provide one week’s worth of feed to the end user with no human interference

Hydrologic And Water Quality Impacts From Perennial Crop Production On Marginal Lands, Qingyu Feng

Open Access Dissertations

Marginal lands are proposed as a viable option for producing biofeedstocks as these lands are not heavily engaged in agricultural production or may not be suitable for intensive row-crop food/feed production. However, meeting biofeedstock production goals will require large amount of marginal lands and the unintended consequences of producing biofeedstocks on marginal lands are not fully clear. The overall goal of this study was to evaluate the productivity of biofeedstocks on marginal lands and the potential impacts on hydrologic and water quality processes from the land use conversion.

This study was conducted in the Upper Mississippi River Basin (UMRB). First, …