To study the performance of different crop establishment techniques and weed management practices... more To study the performance of different crop establishment techniques and weed management practices on growth, yield attributes, yield and economics of maize hybrid, field experiment was conducted during Summer 2023 season.The treatment comprised of different sowing methods viz., pneumatic precision planter, manual rotary dibbler and manual dibbling and these treatments were compared with varied weed management practices such as pre-emergence (PE) application with atrazine 50 % WP @ 0.75 kg ha-1 at 3 DAS + power weeding at 20 and 40 DAS, pre-emergence (PE) application with atrazine 50 % WP @ 0.75 kgha-1 at 3 DAS + hand weeding at 20 and 40 DAS and pre-emergence (PE) application with atrazine 50 % WP @ 0.75 kg ha-1 at 3 DAS + early post-emergence (EPoE) application with topramezone 33.6 % SC @ 25.2 g ha-1 at 20 DAS. The results revealed that manual dibbling under conventional levelled ridges and furrows and pre-emergence application of atrazine 50 % WP @ 0.75 kg ha-1 at 3 DAS through...
International Journal of Environment and Climate Change
The System of Rice Intensification (SRI) revolutionizes rice cultivation through innovative pract... more The System of Rice Intensification (SRI) revolutionizes rice cultivation through innovative practices. It is a methodology that enhances rice yields by optimizing plant growth and resource utilization. This study, conducted in 2023 at TNAU, Coimbatore, India, focuses on the optimization of nursery tray configurations for enhanced seedlings per pick during rice transplantation, contributing to more efficient SRI cultivation. The selection of nursery trays plays a crucial role in determining seedling distribution, impacting crop yield and agricultural efficiency. Through the manipulation of seed density, depth of filling, and tray configuration, the research aims to improve the seedlings' per-pick outcome during mechanized transplantation. The investigation involves 12 tray combinations with varying seed density (40 gm, 60 gm, 80 gm, and 100 gm) and depth of fillings with different heights in tray (15 mm, 20 mm, and 25 mm). Seedling growth parameters are meticulously assessed, inc...
Journal of the Brazilian Society of Mechanical Sciences and Engineering, 2014
ABSTRACT In this study, a concept of low cost injection molding system is presented. A prototype ... more ABSTRACT In this study, a concept of low cost injection molding system is presented. A prototype of a vertical injection molding machine has been designed and built based on the basic principles of injection molding. The developed system consists of plunger, melting chamber and custom-made mold. The plunger is used to deliver plastic melt from the melting chamber into the specific shape of the mold cavity. The performance of the custom-made machine is tested by successfully fabricated tensile specimen, Izod specimen, microchannels and gear shapes. The machine is capable of producing plastic parts of various shapes and sizes.
International journal of engineering research and technology, 2013
The low cost paddy thresher was developed in Tamil Nadu Agricultural University and its performan... more The low cost paddy thresher was developed in Tamil Nadu Agricultural University and its performance was evaluated in the farmer’s field for the research purpose. The portable paddy thresher was tested for its performance in terms of threshing efficiency, grain damage and output capacity at different levels of factors namely concave clearance (15, 20 and 25 mm), cylinder peripheral speed (11.7, 14.1 and 16.5 ms -1 ), grain moisture (13.5, 16.5 and 19.5 per cent) and feed rate (200,400 and 600 kg h -1 ). Comparing the maximum threshing efficiency, minimum grain damage and maximum output capacity in different combinations the minimum loss was achieved at a combination of 20 mm concave clearance, 16.5 m s -1 cylinder speed, 13.5 per cent moisture content and at a feed rate of 600 kg h -1 . The threshing efficiency, grain damage and output capacity occurred at this combination was 99.95 per cent, 2.76 per cent and 248.27 kg h -1 respectively for cast iron rasp bar threshing cylinder. The...
The most popular varieties of Tamil Nadu such as ASD18, ADT36 and IR20 were selected to investiga... more The most popular varieties of Tamil Nadu such as ASD18, ADT36 and IR20 were selected to investigate the influence of crop parameters on mechanical threshing of grains. The length of the paddy varieties ranged from 19.40 to 23.35 cm. The mean length of ASD18, ADT36 and IR20 were found to be 21.81, 21.80 and 22.50 cm, respectively. Among the varieties studied IR20 recorded maximum weight of grains per panicle of 2.90 g while the corresponding values for ASD18 and ADT36 were found to be 2.46 and 2.34 g, respectively. The maximum mean length and thickness and breadth were recorded by ASD18 and IR20, respectively whereas ADT36 recorded minimum values. The average thousand-grain weight of ASD18, ADT36 and IR20 varieties were found to be 21.86, 20.61 and 18.97 g, respectively. The variety ASD18 recorded the maximum bulk density of 590.6 kg m-3 followed by ADT36 (583.4 kg m-3). It is observed that the mean value of true density varies from 1128 to 1158 kg m-3 for the varieties and ASD18 rec...
The average length, width, thickness, geometric mean diameter, sphericity index, surface area, bu... more The average length, width, thickness, geometric mean diameter, sphericity index, surface area, bulk density, true density and porosity of tamarind fruit at the moisture content of 25 % on dry basis were determined. Angle of repose during filling and emptying were in an average of 33.53 ο and 49.72 ο, respectively. Coefficient of friction for tamarind fruits on different surfaces namely, hard board, mild steel, stainless steel, aluminium and galvanized iron sheet were found to be 0.43, 0.59, 0.41, 0.48 and 0.58, respectively.
Coconut shell is one of the major agro-by products vis-a-vis agro-waste generated by coconut proc... more Coconut shell is one of the major agro-by products vis-a-vis agro-waste generated by coconut processing units. At present, Coconut shells are largely utilized as feed material for thermal power conversion by various allied industrial sectors, which is a highly energy inefficient and ecologically unfriendly process. The present study aimed to generate activated carbon dots/ carbon nanomaterials with a wide range of potential applications through a relatively less energy dependant hydrothermal carbonization process. Hydrothermal carbonization is a one-step, simple, low cost and environmental friendly approach to obtain carbon dots. The findings demonstrate that coconut shells when subjected to hydrothermal carbonization process at 250ᵒC for 6 h produced uniform-sized, stable, negatively charged and amorphous forms of carbon dots. Characterization of carbon dots using High-Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy (HR-TEM), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Selected Area Electron D...
Shrinkage is one of the most important physical phenomena that occur during drying in most of the... more Shrinkage is one of the most important physical phenomena that occur during drying in most of the biological materials, especially in those which have high moisture content. Turmeric rhizomes are such kind of material. The turmeric finger rhizomes recorded 50.54 % reduction in thickness and 27.38 % reduction in length and an average volume reduction of 76.80 % when the moisture content was reduced from 411.25 to 7.81 % (db). These results clearly indicate that shrinkage is anisotropic and more shrinkage was appeared in the radial direction than in the axial direction. The moisture removed per unit surface area of turmeric finger rhizomes during drying at 50 o C was calculated with shrinkage and without shrinkage. When the shrinkage was not taken into account the moisture removed per unit surface area of rhizome showed around 15 to 62 % reduced values for the drying period of 16 to 48 hours as compared to the values with shrinkage. The values of effective moisture diffusivity obtaine...
This study was aimed to develop the spaced mat nursery to suit the available transplanter for Sys... more This study was aimed to develop the spaced mat nursery to suit the available transplanter for System of Rice Intensification (SRI) method of cultivation. To achieve 100% seed germination, enough root networks to provide enough rigidity for the mat and to offer conducive growth environment, the soil medium was optimized. Nine treatment media were prepared namely vermisoil (field soil+vermicompost-1:1, 2:1 and 3:1), soil+farm yard manure (FYM) soil (field soil+farm yard manure-1:1, 2:1 and 3:1), field soil+coirpith (1:1 and 2:1) and field soil alone. After 14 days of sowing, seedling height and root length were measured in all trays. Among the nine treatment media studied the maximum nursery height and root length of 17.06 and 10.75 cm was observed in FYM soil and vermisoil, respectively prepared in 1:1 ratio. For the same treatment media when ratio was changed to 2:1 it recorded 16.26 and 10.14 cm respectively. For the stiffness studies, field soil was mixed with decomposed sieved co...
International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences, 2020
India is the world’s second largest producer of onion (Allium cepa L.) after China and it is one ... more India is the world’s second largest producer of onion (Allium cepa L.) after China and it is one of the most important bulbs as well as cash vegetable crop belongs to family Alliaceous. In India, onion is being grown in an area of 5.30 million hectare which gives total production of 88.48 million tons with productivity 16.70 tons per hectare. In India, Onion crop is grown in about 1.20-millionhectare area with an annual production of 19.40 million tons with productivity 16.12 tons per hectare (Anonymous 2017). Mechanization of onion harvesting is needed as traditionally; the well-matured bulbs are harvested by hand shovel (khurpa) which requires 21.4% of total expenditure of onion International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 9 Number 11 (2020) Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com
Threshing of sesame seeds from the harvested capsules is one of the important operations and it c... more Threshing of sesame seeds from the harvested capsules is one of the important operations and it consumes more labor, time and cost. Hence the development of a power operated portable sesame thresher is timely essential for the small farmers. The physical properties of sesame seeds namely size of the seed, Number of seeds per capsule, 1000 grain weight and length and thickness of capsules were studied for developing a power operated portable sesame thresher. The most popular variety used in Tamil Nadu is TMV 7. The average length and thickness of capsules were measured as 35 and 12 mm respectively. The average number of seeds in single capsule was determined as 60. The average 1000 grain weight was determined as 3.1 g. and the average size of the seed is 3×1.8× 0.9 mm. Based on these results the portable sesame thresher was fabricated based on double roller (two rollers are rotating with opposite direction) mechanism with an overall size of 1392 ×700 ×1170 mm and its performance was ...
This study was aimed to develop the mini-tractor drawn turmeric harvester cum conveyor to dig out... more This study was aimed to develop the mini-tractor drawn turmeric harvester cum conveyor to dig out and collect the turmeric rhizome. The physical properties of freshly harvested turmeric mother and finger rhizomes (Erode variety) relevant to the development of mini-tractor operated turmeric harvester were determined. Length, width and thickness were 7.90, 2.48, 2.32 cm, respectively. The moisture content of finger and mother rhizomes was found to be 386.85 and 231.56 % (db). The roundness of fresh finger and mother rhizomes were 0.3065 and 0.5244, respectively. Sphericity of the fresh finger and mother rhizomes recorded 0.3052 and 0.4312, respectively. The cylindricity of fresh finger and mother rhizomes was found to be 0.7604 and 0.6428, respectively. The bulk density of finger and mother rhizomes was 523.85 and 532.25 kg/m 3 , respectively. Based on these physical properties, the equipment was developed with overall dimensions of 1000×1000×600 mm (L×W×H). The digger blade was designed with dimensions of 1000(l) × 200(b) × 8(t) mm. Length and width of conveyor is 700 mm and 1000 mm, respectively. Power required for digging, pulling the equipment and conveyor is 11.54 kW, 0.66 kW and 1.15 kW, respectively. Total power requirement of the unit is 13.35 kW.
To study the performance of different crop establishment techniques and weed management practices... more To study the performance of different crop establishment techniques and weed management practices on growth, yield attributes, yield and economics of maize hybrid, field experiment was conducted during Summer 2023 season.The treatment comprised of different sowing methods viz., pneumatic precision planter, manual rotary dibbler and manual dibbling and these treatments were compared with varied weed management practices such as pre-emergence (PE) application with atrazine 50 % WP @ 0.75 kg ha-1 at 3 DAS + power weeding at 20 and 40 DAS, pre-emergence (PE) application with atrazine 50 % WP @ 0.75 kgha-1 at 3 DAS + hand weeding at 20 and 40 DAS and pre-emergence (PE) application with atrazine 50 % WP @ 0.75 kg ha-1 at 3 DAS + early post-emergence (EPoE) application with topramezone 33.6 % SC @ 25.2 g ha-1 at 20 DAS. The results revealed that manual dibbling under conventional levelled ridges and furrows and pre-emergence application of atrazine 50 % WP @ 0.75 kg ha-1 at 3 DAS through...
International Journal of Environment and Climate Change
The System of Rice Intensification (SRI) revolutionizes rice cultivation through innovative pract... more The System of Rice Intensification (SRI) revolutionizes rice cultivation through innovative practices. It is a methodology that enhances rice yields by optimizing plant growth and resource utilization. This study, conducted in 2023 at TNAU, Coimbatore, India, focuses on the optimization of nursery tray configurations for enhanced seedlings per pick during rice transplantation, contributing to more efficient SRI cultivation. The selection of nursery trays plays a crucial role in determining seedling distribution, impacting crop yield and agricultural efficiency. Through the manipulation of seed density, depth of filling, and tray configuration, the research aims to improve the seedlings' per-pick outcome during mechanized transplantation. The investigation involves 12 tray combinations with varying seed density (40 gm, 60 gm, 80 gm, and 100 gm) and depth of fillings with different heights in tray (15 mm, 20 mm, and 25 mm). Seedling growth parameters are meticulously assessed, inc...
Journal of the Brazilian Society of Mechanical Sciences and Engineering, 2014
ABSTRACT In this study, a concept of low cost injection molding system is presented. A prototype ... more ABSTRACT In this study, a concept of low cost injection molding system is presented. A prototype of a vertical injection molding machine has been designed and built based on the basic principles of injection molding. The developed system consists of plunger, melting chamber and custom-made mold. The plunger is used to deliver plastic melt from the melting chamber into the specific shape of the mold cavity. The performance of the custom-made machine is tested by successfully fabricated tensile specimen, Izod specimen, microchannels and gear shapes. The machine is capable of producing plastic parts of various shapes and sizes.
International journal of engineering research and technology, 2013
The low cost paddy thresher was developed in Tamil Nadu Agricultural University and its performan... more The low cost paddy thresher was developed in Tamil Nadu Agricultural University and its performance was evaluated in the farmer’s field for the research purpose. The portable paddy thresher was tested for its performance in terms of threshing efficiency, grain damage and output capacity at different levels of factors namely concave clearance (15, 20 and 25 mm), cylinder peripheral speed (11.7, 14.1 and 16.5 ms -1 ), grain moisture (13.5, 16.5 and 19.5 per cent) and feed rate (200,400 and 600 kg h -1 ). Comparing the maximum threshing efficiency, minimum grain damage and maximum output capacity in different combinations the minimum loss was achieved at a combination of 20 mm concave clearance, 16.5 m s -1 cylinder speed, 13.5 per cent moisture content and at a feed rate of 600 kg h -1 . The threshing efficiency, grain damage and output capacity occurred at this combination was 99.95 per cent, 2.76 per cent and 248.27 kg h -1 respectively for cast iron rasp bar threshing cylinder. The...
The most popular varieties of Tamil Nadu such as ASD18, ADT36 and IR20 were selected to investiga... more The most popular varieties of Tamil Nadu such as ASD18, ADT36 and IR20 were selected to investigate the influence of crop parameters on mechanical threshing of grains. The length of the paddy varieties ranged from 19.40 to 23.35 cm. The mean length of ASD18, ADT36 and IR20 were found to be 21.81, 21.80 and 22.50 cm, respectively. Among the varieties studied IR20 recorded maximum weight of grains per panicle of 2.90 g while the corresponding values for ASD18 and ADT36 were found to be 2.46 and 2.34 g, respectively. The maximum mean length and thickness and breadth were recorded by ASD18 and IR20, respectively whereas ADT36 recorded minimum values. The average thousand-grain weight of ASD18, ADT36 and IR20 varieties were found to be 21.86, 20.61 and 18.97 g, respectively. The variety ASD18 recorded the maximum bulk density of 590.6 kg m-3 followed by ADT36 (583.4 kg m-3). It is observed that the mean value of true density varies from 1128 to 1158 kg m-3 for the varieties and ASD18 rec...
The average length, width, thickness, geometric mean diameter, sphericity index, surface area, bu... more The average length, width, thickness, geometric mean diameter, sphericity index, surface area, bulk density, true density and porosity of tamarind fruit at the moisture content of 25 % on dry basis were determined. Angle of repose during filling and emptying were in an average of 33.53 ο and 49.72 ο, respectively. Coefficient of friction for tamarind fruits on different surfaces namely, hard board, mild steel, stainless steel, aluminium and galvanized iron sheet were found to be 0.43, 0.59, 0.41, 0.48 and 0.58, respectively.
Coconut shell is one of the major agro-by products vis-a-vis agro-waste generated by coconut proc... more Coconut shell is one of the major agro-by products vis-a-vis agro-waste generated by coconut processing units. At present, Coconut shells are largely utilized as feed material for thermal power conversion by various allied industrial sectors, which is a highly energy inefficient and ecologically unfriendly process. The present study aimed to generate activated carbon dots/ carbon nanomaterials with a wide range of potential applications through a relatively less energy dependant hydrothermal carbonization process. Hydrothermal carbonization is a one-step, simple, low cost and environmental friendly approach to obtain carbon dots. The findings demonstrate that coconut shells when subjected to hydrothermal carbonization process at 250ᵒC for 6 h produced uniform-sized, stable, negatively charged and amorphous forms of carbon dots. Characterization of carbon dots using High-Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy (HR-TEM), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Selected Area Electron D...
Shrinkage is one of the most important physical phenomena that occur during drying in most of the... more Shrinkage is one of the most important physical phenomena that occur during drying in most of the biological materials, especially in those which have high moisture content. Turmeric rhizomes are such kind of material. The turmeric finger rhizomes recorded 50.54 % reduction in thickness and 27.38 % reduction in length and an average volume reduction of 76.80 % when the moisture content was reduced from 411.25 to 7.81 % (db). These results clearly indicate that shrinkage is anisotropic and more shrinkage was appeared in the radial direction than in the axial direction. The moisture removed per unit surface area of turmeric finger rhizomes during drying at 50 o C was calculated with shrinkage and without shrinkage. When the shrinkage was not taken into account the moisture removed per unit surface area of rhizome showed around 15 to 62 % reduced values for the drying period of 16 to 48 hours as compared to the values with shrinkage. The values of effective moisture diffusivity obtaine...
This study was aimed to develop the spaced mat nursery to suit the available transplanter for Sys... more This study was aimed to develop the spaced mat nursery to suit the available transplanter for System of Rice Intensification (SRI) method of cultivation. To achieve 100% seed germination, enough root networks to provide enough rigidity for the mat and to offer conducive growth environment, the soil medium was optimized. Nine treatment media were prepared namely vermisoil (field soil+vermicompost-1:1, 2:1 and 3:1), soil+farm yard manure (FYM) soil (field soil+farm yard manure-1:1, 2:1 and 3:1), field soil+coirpith (1:1 and 2:1) and field soil alone. After 14 days of sowing, seedling height and root length were measured in all trays. Among the nine treatment media studied the maximum nursery height and root length of 17.06 and 10.75 cm was observed in FYM soil and vermisoil, respectively prepared in 1:1 ratio. For the same treatment media when ratio was changed to 2:1 it recorded 16.26 and 10.14 cm respectively. For the stiffness studies, field soil was mixed with decomposed sieved co...
International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences, 2020
India is the world’s second largest producer of onion (Allium cepa L.) after China and it is one ... more India is the world’s second largest producer of onion (Allium cepa L.) after China and it is one of the most important bulbs as well as cash vegetable crop belongs to family Alliaceous. In India, onion is being grown in an area of 5.30 million hectare which gives total production of 88.48 million tons with productivity 16.70 tons per hectare. In India, Onion crop is grown in about 1.20-millionhectare area with an annual production of 19.40 million tons with productivity 16.12 tons per hectare (Anonymous 2017). Mechanization of onion harvesting is needed as traditionally; the well-matured bulbs are harvested by hand shovel (khurpa) which requires 21.4% of total expenditure of onion International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 9 Number 11 (2020) Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com
Threshing of sesame seeds from the harvested capsules is one of the important operations and it c... more Threshing of sesame seeds from the harvested capsules is one of the important operations and it consumes more labor, time and cost. Hence the development of a power operated portable sesame thresher is timely essential for the small farmers. The physical properties of sesame seeds namely size of the seed, Number of seeds per capsule, 1000 grain weight and length and thickness of capsules were studied for developing a power operated portable sesame thresher. The most popular variety used in Tamil Nadu is TMV 7. The average length and thickness of capsules were measured as 35 and 12 mm respectively. The average number of seeds in single capsule was determined as 60. The average 1000 grain weight was determined as 3.1 g. and the average size of the seed is 3×1.8× 0.9 mm. Based on these results the portable sesame thresher was fabricated based on double roller (two rollers are rotating with opposite direction) mechanism with an overall size of 1392 ×700 ×1170 mm and its performance was ...
This study was aimed to develop the mini-tractor drawn turmeric harvester cum conveyor to dig out... more This study was aimed to develop the mini-tractor drawn turmeric harvester cum conveyor to dig out and collect the turmeric rhizome. The physical properties of freshly harvested turmeric mother and finger rhizomes (Erode variety) relevant to the development of mini-tractor operated turmeric harvester were determined. Length, width and thickness were 7.90, 2.48, 2.32 cm, respectively. The moisture content of finger and mother rhizomes was found to be 386.85 and 231.56 % (db). The roundness of fresh finger and mother rhizomes were 0.3065 and 0.5244, respectively. Sphericity of the fresh finger and mother rhizomes recorded 0.3052 and 0.4312, respectively. The cylindricity of fresh finger and mother rhizomes was found to be 0.7604 and 0.6428, respectively. The bulk density of finger and mother rhizomes was 523.85 and 532.25 kg/m 3 , respectively. Based on these physical properties, the equipment was developed with overall dimensions of 1000×1000×600 mm (L×W×H). The digger blade was designed with dimensions of 1000(l) × 200(b) × 8(t) mm. Length and width of conveyor is 700 mm and 1000 mm, respectively. Power required for digging, pulling the equipment and conveyor is 11.54 kW, 0.66 kW and 1.15 kW, respectively. Total power requirement of the unit is 13.35 kW.
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