Browsing by Author "Ramachandran, V R"

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Designing and development of an insecticide applicator for the control of brown plant hopper
(Department of Farm Power Machinery and Energy, Kelappaji College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Tavanur, 1988) Ramachandran, V R; Muhammed, C P
The brown planthopper Nilaparvata Luqens stal. is a dangerous pest which causes, quick and serious damage to rice in South East Asia. In India a serious damage occurred in Kerala during 1973-1976and the estimated loss in this was 12 cores of rupees. An Investigation on the design and development of an insecticide applicator for the control of BPH, by spraying specifically the plant base, at a height of about 15-20cm from the field surface, was carried out. The applicator developed consisted of two hydraulic energy knap-sack sprayers each of 16 lit. capacity a boom carrier having a length of 2.4 m made of 18 mm GI pipe flexible hose a pair of cut-off devices, 4 down pipes each carrying a set of nozzles and shoe shaped nozzle cover. The nozzle used in this study was DSD nozzle which was giving more uniform spray pattern and which could be used with minimum number of down pipes. The shoe shaped nozzle cover reduced the tilting of the boom and enabled easy movement in the field. The boom had a total weight of 10.5 kg and swath width 2.4 m. The discharge of the boom was 1300 ml/min. at a pressure of 2 kg/cm2. From the field tests it was observed that around 450 litres of fluid was sprayed in 8.0 hours of time covering an area of one hectare. The total cost of the complete applicator was Rs.1850/- including the cost of two knap-sack sprayers. The economic analysis revealed that, the operating cost of the applicator per hour was 19.30 rupees, excluding the cost of insecticide.
Development of a bund strengthening implement for paddy wetland based on soil - machine parameters
(Department of Farm Machinery and Power Engineering Kelappaji College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Tavanur, 2018) Suma Nair; Ramachandran, V R
Three models (BF1, BF2 and BF3) of a low cost, tractor drawn bund strengthening implement were developed and their performance was evaluated at three test locations, viz., Pullazhi kolepadavu in Thrissur kole lands, Kolothumpadam kolepadavu in Ponnani kole lands and Athalur, Tavanur (non-kole). The forming board type design was chosen. The major dimensions of the developed models, viz., top width, bottom width and rear height are 150, 250 and 150 mm for BF1, 200, 350 and 150 mm for BF2 and 250, 400 and 250 mm respectively. The main parts of the implement were the MS angle bar tool frame and hitch assembly of size 1150 mm x 500 mm, implement frame made of MS angle bars to connect the forming board assembly to the tool frame, modified forming boards with gathering boards attached in the front, and a 400 mm long, three sided forming case at the rear which provided a plastered finish to the formed bund. All the elements, including the forming boards and the forming case, acted like a single unit. Analyses of the various soil properties at the three test sites were also performed. The soils at Pullazhi kolepadavu and Kolothumpadam kolepadavu were silty clay while the soil at Tavanur was sandy loam in texture. The dimensions of the bunds drawn by the implements were suited to the prevalent farmers’ practice at Pullazhi and Ponnani. At Tavanur, new bunds could be drawn using the implements. At Pullazhi kole fields, models BF1 and BF2 showed a better performance in terms of strength measured as cone index. The performance of BF3 and BF4 gave the best results at Ponnani. BF2 or BF4, operated by NH 3230, were suitable to the Tavanur fields, in terms of strength of bund as assessed by cone index. Shear strength values exhibited by the manual bunds were always lesser than that by mechanically formed bunds at Pullazhi. Bunds formed by BF2 showed the highest value of 46.02 kPa at 0.2 m depth which went upto 40.81 kPa on the seventh day. The same trend was seen in Ponnani also but the bunds formed by BF3 and BF4 had the highest shear strength values.The average speed of operation ranged from minimum of 1.24 km h -1 when BF1 was operated by KTT at Tavanur, in sandy loam soils to 2.98 km h -1 when BF2 was operated by JD 5042 at Ponnani. Draft was least for BF1 operated by KTT and highest for BF3 and BF4 operated in Ponnani silt-clay. The minimum fuel consumption was noted as 2.53 L h -1 for BF1-NH 3230 combination at Tavanur while the maximum was 3.76 L h -1 for BF3-JD 5042 at Ponnani. The BF4 trials had higher consumption of 7.71 L h -1 in silty clay at Ponnani and 5.62 L h -1 in sandy loam at Tavanur. The maximum capacity of 2984.24 m h -1 was observed for BF2 operated by JD 5042 at Ponnani kole. BF4 had lower capacities as two passes of the tractor were required to complete the operation. The minimum capacity of mechanical bund strengthening implement is 906.86 m h -1 . The manual operation has a capacity of 62.5 m h -1 . Thus there is a 14 times increase in capacity of bund formation by mechanical implements. Wheel slip is within the acceptable range of 5 to 15 per cent. The cost of mechanical formation of bunds ranges from Rs. 18/- to Rs. 30/- per 100 m. while it ranges from Rs. 178/- to Rs. 227/- for manual operation. The developed implement had a FOS of 2.17. Hence, taking all observations into account, it can be summarised that the bund strengthening implement model BF2 was found suitable to Pullazhi kolepadavu in terms of size, strength, lower moisture content and higher bulk density. At Ponnani, the models BF3 and BF4 performed well. However, as BF4 operation involved a higher fuel consumption and lower capacity of bund formation, the model BF3 can be recommended. At Tavanur fields, the prevalent manual bunds showed better performance parameters. However, new bunds can be formed in the fields using the developed implements. Trial BF4 and BF3 gave better performance in these soils.
Development of a cono-puddler attachment for a 5hp tiller
(Department of Farm Power Machinery and Energy, Kelappaji College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Tavanur, 2000) Tejendra Sharma; Ramachandran, V R
A 5hp power tiller operated cono – puddler was fabricated based on the IRRI design and tested. Based on the test result, four more models of cono – puddlers were fabricated and tested. Out of the five models, four were walking behind type implemented and were tested at travel speed of around 0.786 m/sec whereas one was of riding type (model – 5) and was operated at travel speed of around 0.964 m/sec. All the models were tested for three and four times operations. The depth of puddling of the model – 1 was 10 – 11 cm. Another set of conical rotors was fabricated by increasing the blade height to 90 mm from 70 mm (model – 2). The depth of puddling obtained was 12.2 to 13.8 cm. Because of the problem of clogging of soil in between the blades and due to a wide gap in between the rotors which leaves the soil uncut, another set of rotors was fabricated by increasing and modifying the shape of the blades to helical and tested (model – 3). The above three models consisted of six conical rotors clamped individually on a toolbar assembly. Another model, (model – 4) was tested by increasing the number of rotors of model – 3 to eight numbers. The maneuverability of this model was not good as it was difficult at the time of headland turning. The average percolation loss of water for the five models measured for 20 days after puddling varied from 3.692 to 3.979 mm/day for three time operations and 2.650 to 2.983 mm/day for four times operations. The least percolation loss of water was observed in case of model – 5 and highest in case of model – 1 in both numbers of operations. The puddling indices for the five models varied from 56.31 to 59.34 per cent for three times operations and 63.46 to 68.89 per cent for times operations. The highest puddling index was observed in case of model – 5 in both numbers of operations. The average percentage burial of weeds from different test plots varied from 98. 38 to 98.79 per cent in terms of number of weeds and 99.09 to 99.34 per cent in terms of dry weight basis for three times operations. The variation was from 98.94 to 99.69 per cent in terms of number of weeds and 99.40 to 99.83 per cent in terms of dry weight basis for four times operations. The effective field capacities for model – 1, model – 2, model – 3, model – 4 and model – 5 were 0.826, 0.790, 0.843, 0. 826 and 1.053 ha/day respectively for three times operations and 0.618, 0.598, 0.613, 0.643 and 0.799 ha/day respectively for four times operations. The field efficiencies of the five models for different number of operations varied from 52.58 to 72.20 per cent where field efficiency of model – 4 was observed least in both number of operations. In both cases, field capacity and field efficiency of the model – 5 was highest. The draft of model – 1, model – 2, model – 3 model – 4 and model – 5 were 40.68, 45.03, 46.81, 48.19 and 58.06 kg and draw bar horse power requirement were 0.426, 0.472, 0.491, 0.505 and 0.746 hp respectively. The power required for the model – 5 was higher than the other models. The fuel consumption rate for the five models operated at different number of operations varied from 0.495 It/h in case of model – 1 operated three times to 0.666 It/h in case of model – 5 operated for four times. The slippage of the ground wheel for the five models varied from 0.811 per cent to 3.588 per cent. Lowest ground wheel slippage of 0.881 per cent was observed in model – 1 operated three times and highest of 3.588 per cent in model – 5 operated 4 times. The cost of puddling one hectare of land using model – 3 and model – 5 are Rs. 534.39 and Rs. 432.83 when operated for four times and break even point is 1.2 ha compared to animal drawn country plough.
Variation in evapotranspiration and crop coefficients of rice at the regional agricultural research station, Pattambi
(Kerala Agricultural University, 1994) Hassan, M A; Ramachandran, V R