Engineering Commons^™

Barn Considerations For Cash Hay Operations, Morgan D. Hayes

Kentucky Alfalfa and Stored Forage Conference

A well designed and built a barn can be invaluable for cash hay operation. Barn provide opportunity to reduce losses in dry matter and help maintain quality throughout the winter. There are numerous styles of barns that hay producers can purchase or build themselves. Wood frame structures, often with metal roofs and metal sides, are fairly common. You can also build barns with a steel structure with or without metal siding on the walls. Hoop barns are another common hay storage structure - particularly common with round bale storage. All, however, provide valuable storage for hay. There are four areas …

Potential Economic Impacts Of Allocating More Land For Bioenergy Biomass Production In Virginia, Thomas O. Ochuodho, Janaki R. R. Alavalapati, Pankaj Lal, Domena A. Agyeman, Bernabas Wolde, Pralhad Burli

Forestry and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

The growing attention to renewable energy and rural development has created greater demand for production of biomass feedstock for bioenergy. However, forest growth rates and the amount of land in most existing forests may not be sufficient to sustainably supply the forest biomass required to support existing forest products industries and the expanding bioenergy industry. Additionally, concerns about agricultural land use competition have dampened expansion of biomass production on agricultural land base. One of the ways to meet the growing forest biomass feedstock demand for bioenergy production is by allocating currently marginal non-forested land for growing bioenergy feedstocks. In Virginia, …

Development And Preliminary Evaluation Of An Integrated Individual Nozzle Direct Injection And Carrier Flow Rate Control System For Pesticide Applications, Joe D. Luck, Scott A. Shearer, Michael P. Sama

Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications

Direct injection systems for agricultural spray applications continue to present challenges in terms of commercialization and adoption by end users. Such systems have typically suffered from lag time and mixing uniformity issues, which have outweighed the potential benefits of keeping chemical and carrier separate or reducing improper tank-mixed concentration by eliminating operator measurements. The proposed system sought to combine high-pressure direct nozzle injection with an automated variable-flow nozzle to improve chemical mixing and response times. The specific objectives were to: (1) integrate a high-pressure direct nozzle injection system with variable-flow carrier control into a prototype for testing, (2) assess the …

Performance Validation Of A Multi-Channel Lidar Sensor: Assessing The Effects Of Target Height And Sensor Velocity On Measurement Error, Surya S. Dasika, Michael P. Sama, L. Felipe Pampolini, Christopher B. Good

Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications

The objective of this study was to determine the effects of sensor velocity and target height above ground level on height measurement error when using a multi-channel LiDAR sensor. A linear motion system was developed to precisely control the dynamics of the LiDAR sensor in an effort to remove uncertainty in the LiDAR position and velocity while under motion. The linear motion system allowed the LiDAR to translate forward and backward in one direction parallel to the ground. A user control interface was developed to operate the system under different velocity profiles and to log LiDAR data synchronous to the …

Evaluation Of Air Movement In Equestrian Facilities And On Equine Athletes, Staci Elaine Mcgill

Theses and Dissertations--Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering

Ventilation and air movement are important aspects of animal agriculture and is frequently neglected in equine facilities. This paper discusses three different studies that examine different components of ventilation and air movement. One is a fan orientation study which examines how fans impact the stall environment, the second is a cooling study questioning whether forced air speed across a horse increases the rate of cool out after intense exercise, and the last is a survey examining ventilation, air quality, and health concerns in indoor arenas.

The stall fan study took place over two summers with the goal of determining how …

Evaluating The Influence Of The Forestry Reclamation Approach On The Hydrology Of Appalachian Coal Mined Lands, Morgan F. Gerlitz

Theses and Dissertations--Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering

The Appalachian Region is a rich and diverse forest ecosystem impacted by present and past mining activities. The Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) of 1977 was enacted to resolve many of the environmental problems caused by surfacing mining, such as landslides, erosion, flooding, and poor water quality. As with many solutions, this one came with its own set of environmental problems due to compaction and the introduction of aggressive non-native grasses and shrubs altering hydrologic processes and ecosystem function. The Forestry Reclamation Approach (FRA) is a method for re-establishing forested ecosystems on mined lands. This project evaluated the …

Design And Testing Of A Wind Energy Harnessing System For Forced Convective Drying Of Grain In Low Wind Speed, Warm And Humid Climates, Francis Akumabi Agbali

Theses and Dissertations--Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering

Forced convective drying using a wind turbine mechanically connected to a ventilation fan was hypothesized for low cost and rapid grain drying in developing countries. The idea was tested using an expandable wind turbine blade system with variable pitch, at low wind speeds in a wind tunnel. The design was based on empirical and theoretical models embedded in a graphical user interface (GUI) created to estimate airflow-power requirements for drying ear corn. Output airflow (0.0016 - 0.0052 m³kg^-1s^-1) increased within the study wind speed range (2.0 - 5.5 m/s). System efficiency peak (8.6%) was …

Removing Vehicle Speed From Apparent Wind Velocity, Austin M. Weiss

Theses and Dissertations--Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering

Variable-rate technologies for sprayer applications stand to increase efficacy by ensuring the right amount of chemical is applied at the right location. However, external environmental factors such as droplet drift caused by variable ambient condition, are not yet integrated into modern sprayer systems. Real-time wind velocity measurements can be used to control droplet spectra for reducing spray drift by actuating a variable-orifice nozzle. This work aimed to develop data processing methods needed to filter noise and remove vehicle speed from wind velocity measurements collected with an ultrasonic anemometer aboard a moving platform. Using a global navigation satellite system (GNSS), vehicle …

Lignin-Derived Carbon And Nanocomposite Materials For Energy Storage Applications, Wenqi Li

Theses and Dissertations--Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering

With a growing demand for electrical energy storage materials, lignin-derived carbon materials have received increasing attention in recent years. As a highly abundant renewable carbon source, lignin can be converted to a variety of advanced carbon materials with tailorable chemical, structural, mechanical and electrochemical properties through thermochemical conversion (e.g. pyrolysis). However, the non-uniformity in lignin structure, composition, inter-unit linkages and reactivity of diverse lignin sources greatly influence lignin fractionation from plant biomass, the pyrolysis chemistry, and property of the resulting carbon materials.

To introduce a better use of lignocellulosic biomass to biofuels and co-products, it is necessary to find novel …