NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract Main Menu Session 2208 Introducing Engineering Design Concepts with a Micro Steam Car Project Alan C. Hansen 1, Prasanta K. Kalita 1, Peter W.L. Lyne 2, Loren E. Bode 1 1 Department of Agricultural Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign/ 2 School of Bioresources Engineering and Environmental Hydrology, University of Natal, South Africa Abstract A micro steam car construction project was introduced for the first time in Fall 2000 as part of an introduction to agricultural engineering course for freshmen. Its purpose was to provide students with a hands-on engineering design experience constructing and testing a micro steam car. Most of the materials for building the car were supplied as a kit and comprised raw materials in the form of sheet metal, soda can, rubber tubes, wire, string and tin lids. Students built a car approximately 30 cm long powered by an ethanol heated tin can boiler, a pin sized nozzle and a turbine, which drives the front wheel. The project culminates with a competition in which the objective is to achieve maximum distance traveled on 20 mL of ethanol fuel. Apart from learning some metal working and soldering skills, the nature of the project allowed students to wrestle with a number of basic engineering and science concepts such as energy conservation, heat transfer and efficiency. While engineers in their first year of study may not yet have covered these topics in any detail in their classes, the need to try and identify factors contributing to the performance of the car provided a long-lasting learning experience. They are also able to practice problem-solving skills and learn to work in teams. Feedback from students on the project was positive with most students concluding that it had been a worthwhile activity in terms of learning problem-solving skills, working in a team and getting to know other students. Introduction ABET accredited undergraduate engineering programs, including Agricultural Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have begun to introduce design concepts at the freshman level with the objective of maintaining a common design thread through the entire program. In addition, by introducing design as early as possible there is an opportunity to promote early interaction between students and faculty and generate excitement about engineering at a time when the curriculum is heavily loaded with basic math and science courses and relatively little perceived engineering. Proceedings of the 2002 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2002, American Society for Engineering Education Main Menu

The agricultural industry is increasingly reliant upon the development of technologies that employ real-time monitoring of machine performance to generate pertinent information for machine operators, owners, and managers. Yield mapping in particular is an important component of implementing precision agricultural practices and assessing spatial variability. In an attempt to generate yield maps in sugarcane, this research estimated yield in the field based on GPS data from harvesters, tractors and semi-trucks. The method was based on identifying “fill events”, which represent a distance through which the tractor/wagon combination traveled in parallel with the harvester, indicating that the wagon was being filled. Each wagon was filled to approximately 10 Mg of sugarcane, which was divided by the fill event distance and row width to determine the yield in Mg ha−1. A total of 76 fill events were observed from a 7.1 ha harvested area. Based on the estimated yield per fill event, a rudimentary yield map was developed, which was expanded into a generalized yield map for the 7.1 ha harvested area.

Two low-cost Real-time Kinematic Global Navigation Satellite Systems (RTK GNSSs) being the Emlid "Reach RTK" and the NavSpark "NS-HP" were evaluated in terms of positioning accuracy and precision. Each GNSSs' rover unit was mounted on a field robot that travelled by manual remote control along a pre-defined test track in six repeated trials. The precision of the two systems was evaluated through F-test statistics. The combined accuracy of the two GNSSs was determined by comparing the positioning data to a fixed known distance between the GNSS antennas on the robot (472 mm). In three out of six trials, both GNSSs remained in fixed solution status, and showed a Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) of less than 50 mm, which was within the expected range. In two other trials, one of the GNSSs started in float solution status, and subsequently transitioned to fixed solution status. In these trials, the RMSE was still well within one meter, which was expected in float solution status. In one trial, a false fixed position status was encountered, where the NavSpark GNSS falsely claimed it was in fixed solution status. This issue needs to be alleviated in the future by improvements in signal conditioning, noise, and software, and/or by sensor fusion. Although the Emlid GNSS had superior localization performance, as its percentage of data in fixed solution status was 94.0% compared to 71.5% for the NavSpark GNSS, both were deemed promising for use on experimental field robots.

Acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) has been directly used in modern engines as a way to eliminate the high separation cost during the butanol fermentation process. Nevertheless, further development of ABE could be restricted by the corrosiveness of acetone in the mixture. By converting ABE into Isopropanol-Butanol-Ethanol (IBE) in a single biochemical step, a different yet more stable alternative fuel could be available. This study is aimed to investigate the performance, combustion, and soot luminosity of a constant volume chamber fueled with varying ratios of IBE and diesel. IBE blended at 20% and 40% with 80% and 60% diesel, by volume respectively, and neat diesel were compared under various ambient oxygen and temperature conditions. Overall, the IBE-diesel blends were able to maintain combustion and spray characteristics similar to that of neat diesel while at the same time reducing soot. However, at lower temperatures and oxygen concentrations, the IBE-diesel blends show higher ignition delays which affect the combustion.

This study compared energy consumption during harvest of Miscanthus Giganteus with a New Holland H8080 mower-conditioner among three cutting blade designs being 1) straight, 2) straight, angled at 30 degrees and 3) serrated. Square bales were produced by a New Holland BB9080 large square baler. To calculate energy consumption per unit crop mass in MJ Mg-1, bales of known mass were identified, and the cutting energy to produce this bale was calculated by accumulating the mower-conditioner's energy consumption across the collection area associated with that bale. Energy consumption was also expressed as a Percentage of Inherent Heating Value (PIHV), where energy consumption was divided by the heating value of Miscanthus Giganteus (17.7 GJ Mg-1). Average energy requirement for the whole machine were 12.31 MJ Mg-1 (0.070 PIHV), 11.31 MJ Mg-1 (0.064 PIHV), and 9.27 MJ Mg-1 (0.052 PIHV) for straight, angled and serrated blades respectively. Average energy requirements for the header were 9.50 MJ Mg-1 (0.054 PIHV), 8.32 MJ Mg-1 (0.047 PIHV), and 7.20 MJ Mg-1 (0.041 PIHV) for straight, angled and serrated blades respectively. Average energy requirements for traction were 0.96 MJ Mg-1 (0.005 PIHV), 1.21 MJ Mg-1 (0.007 PIHV), and 1.04 MJ Mg-1 (0.006 PIHV) for straight, angled and serrated blades respectively. The theoretical field capacity increased from straight blades at 1.35 ha h(-1) to angled blades at 1.52 ha h(-1) to serrated blades at 2.23 ha h(-1). Evidently, the design of cutting blades had a significant effect on energy consumption and field performance of biomass harvesting equipment.

Mechanized agriculture plays a key role in the overall socio-economic development of any community in terms of food security, value addition, employment, poverty alleviation and export earnings. In Bangladesh, it is essential to ensure agricultural mechanization, especially in rice harvesting system to increase production and cropping intensity. The main objective of the study was to identify the present rice harvesting practices in southern delta of Bangladesh and was also to assess the manual and mechanical harvesting systems of rice with impact on socio-economic status of Bangladesh by reducing labor cost, infield harvesting losses and harvesting time. Several experiments were conducted to compare between mechanical and manual harvesting systems. Mechanical harvesting of Aman-2016 rice and Boro-2017 rice was conducted using reaper and a mini-combine harvester at Dumuria, and Wazirpur Upazilas of Khulna and Barisal districts, respectively of Bangladesh. Manual harvesting of rice was also conducted at the same locations. The results showed that manual rice harvesting cost was 24400 BDT/ha, and on the other hand, harvesting cost using mini-combine harvester and reaper were found 10123 BDT/ha and 13152 BDT/ha, respectively. Harvesting loss of rice can be reduced 5.12% and 2.14% using mini-combine and reaper, respectively in comparison to manual harvesting system. Farmers can invest the financial benefit of mechanical harvesting system to other agricultural sectors like poultry, fishery, vegetable and fruits production. As a result, total agricultural production might be increased and helped to contribute significantly to the development of socio-economic status of rural community of Bangladesh.

Southern region of Bangladesh is characterized by unfavorable ecosystem such as heavy rain, storm, salinity, water scarcity in dry season. Agricultural machinery especially conservation machinery is less practiced in this region. Mungbean and jute were planted at farmers‘ fields of Barishal and Khulna districts, respectively. The zero till planter (ZT), strip till planter (ST), bed planter (BP) and power tiller operated seeder (PTOS) along with conventional tilling were used for planting of mungbean and ST, PTOS along with conventional tillage cum broadcasting and conventional tillage cum jute seedling transplanting method were used for planting of jute. The effective field capacities of ZT, ST, BP, PTOS and power tiller for mungbean planting were 0.097, 0.104, 0.082, 0.111, and 0.081 ha h-1. The effective field capacities of ST, PTOS and power tiller for jute planting in dryland and wetland tillage were found 0.098, 0.099, 0.100 and 0.096 ha h-1.Fuel saving by ZT, ST, BP, and PTOS was about 60% to 75% than that of power tiller. Significantly the highest grain yields of mungbean were found from zero till and strip till planted methods than those of other methods. Dry stalk and fiber yields were found from PTOS planted jute followed by strip till and conventional tillage cum broadcasting jutes. The highest benefit cost ratio (BCR) for planting of mungbean was obtained from ST (2.60) and ZT (2.40) followed by other methods. For planting of jute the highest BCR was obtained from PTOS (2.54) and ST (2.31) methods.Therefore, ZT and the ST may be recommended in Barishal region for planting of mungbean and PTOS and the ST in Khulna region for planting of jute.

Rice harvesting is an important agricultural operation which demands considerable amount of labor. The Southern region of Bangladesh is lagging behind in adoption of mechanical harvesting of rice due to its agro-ecological characteristics as saline and cyclone prone area. On the other hand, shortage of labor and delayed harvesting cause huge harvesting losses to the farmer. To maintain timeliness of harvesting and reduce losses “Appropriate Scale Mechanization Innovation Hub (ASMIH)-Bangladesh” with financial assistance of University of Illinois and USAID, has taken initiative to adapt harvesting technologies in the southern region of Bangladesh. An experiment of Aman rice (November-December, 2016) harvesting at Dumuria, and Wazirpur Upazilas of Khulna and Barisal districts, respectively of Bangladesh was conducted using two models (ACI and Metal) of reaper and mini-combine harvester (Glory Engineering). Technical and economic performances of the selected harvesting technologies were estimated based on the field data. Average fuel consumption, effective field capacity and field efficiency of (a) ACI reaper, (b) Metal reaper and (c) Mini-combine harvester were (a) 3.29 L/ha, 0.22 ha/hr, 57.78% (b) 3.87 L/ha, 0.23 ha/hr, 66.43% and (c) 18.12 L/ha, 0.09 ha/hr, 55.40%, respectively for Wazirpur, Barisal, and (a) 3.18 L/ha, 0.26 ha/hr, 65.32% (b) 4.19 L/ha, 0.18 ha/hr, 53.5% and (c) 19.52 L/ha, 0.09 ha/hr, 54.16%, respectively for Dumuria, Khulna. The farmers found the mini-combine harvester more attractive as it performs several tasks like harvesting, threshing, cleaning and bagging in a single operation. Further investigation is needed to identify the suitability of these harvesting machines in Boro harvesting.

Shortage and increased cost of agricultural labor during transplanting period are forcing farmers to look for an alternative of traditional puddling of soil and manual transplanting of rice. Field trials were conducted during Aman season (July-November), 2016 with a view to compare transplanting operation of rice crop in the puddled and un-puddled conditions and a self-propelled four row walk behind type rice transplanter was used. Rice variety, BINA Dhan-49 was used in this study and the age of the seedling was 12 days where the average height of the seedling was 14 cm. Round up herbicides was applied 2 days before planting and irrigation was given 24 hours before planting in the unpuddled plot. Puddled plot was prepared by two passes of rotary tiller and leveling operation by two wheel tractor. The suitability of the two methods was compared in terms of field capacity, fuel consumption, missing and damaged hill percentage, and overall yield. It was found that the effective field capacity and fuel consumption of the rice transplanter in puddled condition were 0.11 ha/hr, and 5.1 lit/ha, respectively, whereas the effective field capacity and fuel consumption in un-puddled condition were 0.2 ha/hr and 4.38 lit/ha, respectively. Weed infestation was found almost same in both the plot. The Missing hill percentage was 1.3% for puddled condition and 3.35% for un-puddled condition. Overall yield of rice in unpuddled plot was found more as 5.74 ton/ha compared to puddled plot 5.42 ton/ha. The machine was found operator & farmer friendly and satisfactory.

Bangladesh agriculture has been facing serious challenges of scarcity of labor and higher labour wages especially in peak harvesting and transplanting period. In the prevailing situation, there is an urge among the rice farmers to replace the traditional transplanting of rice seedling by mechanical means. Seedling preparation either on tray or on mat is one of the most important tasks for mechanical transplanting. Seedling tray making process needs manual labor for preparing and placing of soil on the tray and spread the pre-germinated seed on the ready tray. The main considerations of different tray making processes were to find out the time, labor, and water requirement. Three different types of soil medium were prepared for raising seedling. The first one was prepared by crushing and sieving the soil in powdered form and filling the trays. The second type of tray was prepared by pouring locally available mud from low land and third one was prepared by placing available mud from low land on the polyethylene sheet set on soil bed. Collection of mud from low land and preparing 50 trays required 2 man-hr. 1 man-hr was required to prepare 50 tray blocks on soil bed and with crushed soil 4.5 man-hr was required for preparing 50 trays. Time required to fill a tray (2 feet x 1 feet) with pre-germinated seed was 2 minutes by one skilled person. The overall germination and growth of the seedling after 7 days were found similar in all the trays and seed beds. Root development was observed better in the mud soil. Water requirement in the mud soil was more compared to crushed soil. There was a tendency of crack forming on the mud soil both in tray and bed.

The performance and emissions of Acetone-Butanol-Ethanol (ABE)/diesel mixtures in an AVL 5402 single cylinder diesel research engine under various engine operating conditions were investigated in this study. The experiments were conducted at three different speeds (1200, 1500, and 2000 RPM) and different injection quantities (loads) (15, 20, and 25 mg/cycle). The fuels tested in these experiments were pure diesel, ABE10, and ABE20. The acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) was blended in a 3:6:1 ratio. ABE10 and ABE20 consist of 10% acetone-butanol-ethanol mixture and 90% diesel by volume and 20% ABE and 80% diesel by volume respectively. The results showed a promising future for ABE-diesel mixture as an alternative transportation fuel. There was improved thermal efficiency even with relatively small ABE blending ratios and a slight reduction in power output due to the lower energy density. There was an overall retarded combustion phasing, including longer ignition delay time, retarded CA50 timing, peak pressure timing and end of combustion timing. Accelerated heat release during CA10∼CA50 indicates a higher degree of premixed combustion. Overall soot emissions were lower and NOx emissions were higher for ABE-containing fuels at same load and timing conditions. Tuning injection timing would be helpful for the reduction of NOx to a degree that is even lower than that of diesel. With proper tuning of injection quantity and injection timing, adopting ABE-diesel mixtures has the potential of improving efficiency and reducing emissions at the same time. Considering the low cost of ABE production compared to other kinds of bio-fuels, ABE could become a possible alternative to the current fuel additives.

Butanol, in comparison with ethanol, has more similar properties of current transportation fuel. These means it has a potential of being a more suitable blend for use in diesel engines. Unfortunately, butanol has a high cost of production. Acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) is an intermediate product of the fermentation process of butanol production. By using ABE directly in diesel fuels instead of butanol, the separation and purification processes are eliminated. As a result, it has a potential for greatly decreasing the overall cost for fuel production. This could lead to a larger commercial use of ABE-diesel blends on the market. Research has been conducted over the past five years regarding spray and combustion processes of both neat ABE and ABE-diesel blends. The main focus of this paper is to review the efforts made in fundamental spray research under quasi-steady flow field environments provided by a high-temperature, high-pressure constant volume chamber. Heat release rates high-speed Mie-scattering images were acquired from in-cylinder pressure traces to characterize liquid spray penetration. Natural flam luminosity was also captured to depict spatial and temporal soot distribution. It is observed that the acetone content has a major influence in the combustion behavior of the ABE mixture. As the acetone content increases, the combustion phasing significantly advances. Butanol is able to compensate the advancing effect caused by acetone and ethanol. Additionally, butanol can increase the overall energy density of the mixture and as a result makes the properties of the mixture closer to that of diesel.

Miscanthus is emerging as a potential bioenergy crop because of its high yield and ability to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, there is a lack of data on harvesting machinery performance for the USA conditions, and influence of yield on harvesting cost and fuel consumption. This study quantified performance of a mower-conditioner and a large square baler for Illinois conditions, and investigated influence of yield on fuel consumption and harvesting costs. To calculate performance parameters, a field area was segmented from which a bale was formed. Then in the segmented field area, yield and machine performance parameters were determined. The mower-conditioner's field capacity was 1.8 ha h(-1), and diesel consumption was 19.2 L ha(-1). The baler's field capacity was 1.4 ha h(-1), and diesel consumption was 19.7 L ha(-1). The mowing cost was 4.8 $ Mg-1, and baling cost was 6.8 $ Mg-1. An inverse correlation (R-2 = 0.62) was found between miscanthus yield and harvesting cost ($ Mg-1), and a direct correlation (R-2 = 0.67) was found between miscanthus yield and fuel consumption (L ha(-1)). It is expected that this study would help in more accurate assessment of environmental impact and economic feasibility of miscanthus, and may lead to further studies for quantifying crop yield and machine performance interactions. (c) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Energycane is a promising bioenergy crop for warm south-eastern US regions and existing sugarcane machinery is being adapted for energycane cultivation. Because of energycane's comparatively higher fibre content and smaller stem diameters, the cutting blades must be optimized for energycane harvesting and size reduction. To optimize cutting blade designs, this study investigated the effect of cutting speed and blade oblique angle on cutting energy. An impact type cutting mechanism was used to determine the cutting energy cost of individual stems. The results showed that the specific cutting energy increases with cutting speed. The lowest average specific energy was 0.26 J mm(-1) for a 60 degrees oblique cut at an average cutting speed of 7.9 m s(-1), whereas the highest average specific cutting energy was 1.24 J mm(-1) for a straight cut at an average cutting speed of 16.4 m s(-1). The specific cutting energy showed a close correlation with stem diameter and stem cross-sectional area. For a 30 degrees oblique angle at 11.3 m s(-1) average cutting speed, the cutting energy varied from 4.5 to 15 J as the energycane stem diameter varied from 11 to 17 mm. Comparisons with sugarcane studies indicated that optimisation of cutting speed and blade oblique angle can result in significant savings in cutting energy, whilst simultaneously improving the quality of cut. This study emphasises the need for further investigation of the energycane cutting process especially at higher cutting speeds with cutting devices with varying moments of inertia. (C) 2015 IAgrE. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The flow performance of preprocessed biomass plays an important role in biomass transportation and handling. The research as presented here investigated how the Angle of Repose (AOR) of miscanthus and switchgrass is related to flow performance of biomass particles in an auger that was originally designed to convey corn and soybeans. The flow performance metrics were the specific energy consumption (SEC), energy efficiency (EE), volumetric efficiency (VE), volumetric flow rate (VFR) and mass flow rate (MFR).The results showed that the EE and MFR while conveying miscanthus and switchgrass particles ground through 635-, 9.53-, 12.7- and 25.4-mm milling screens were much lower than those of corn. However, the differences in VFR between corn and biomass were much smaller than that in SEC and mass flow rate (MFR). This result implies that the low bulk density of biomass feedstock is a more pronounced limiting factor in biomass handling than the conveying mechanism used.The AOR of miscanthus and switchgrass particles was found proportional to particle size and moisture content. While AOR is an indicator of the material's internal friction, in this study, the AOR of miscanthus and switchgrass was not significantly related to the energy/volumetric efficiency of the auger. By comparing the measured auger power consumption to predictions from empirical equations developed for corn and soybean, it became evident that these equations do not perform well for biomass feedstock. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.