Abstract
Large amounts of crop stalks left in the field as a result of conservation agriculture cause blockage during no-till planting. To solve this issue, pure waterjet was used to cut off the maize stalks so that the rear furrow opener could pass through without blockage. In this investigation, an experimental study on depth of cut, which was the main performance indicator of pure waterjet on cutting maize stalks, was presented. A full factorial design with 200 tests was implemented with respect to three operation parameters, that is traverse speed, waterjet pressure, and standoff distance were considered as variables. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) was carried out in order to determine the statistical significance of individual operation parameters. Using multilinear stepwise regression analysis, a model to predict the cut of depth from the predicted pure waterjet operation to cut maize stalks was then developed. All three operation parameters significantly influenced the cutting performance. Moreover, the results indicated that depth of cut increased with the increase of waterjet pressure, the decrease of traverse speed, and decrease in standoff distance. Waterjet pressure provided major contribution to depth of cut, followed by traverse speed, then standoff distance, which was demonstrated by both ANOVA and regression analysis. The experimental results showed that when the standoff distance was closer than 10 mm and waterjet pressure was 280 MPa, all maize stalks specimen could be cutoff thoroughly. With the consideration of field operating conditions, waterjet pressure of 280 MPa or higher and 10 mm to 15 mm standoff distance were recommended for maize stalks cutting. This analysis provided a realistic approach for the optimization of the ultra-high pressure pure waterjet parameters in maize stalks cutting, which could be used to relieve the occurrence of straw blockage in no-till planting. Keywords: waterjet, ultra-high pressure, conservation tillage, maize stalks, cutting, traverse speed, standoff distance DOI: 10.25165/j.ijabe.20191205.5088 Citation: Hu H N, Li H W, Wang Q J, He J, Lu C Y, Wang Y B, et al. Performance of waterjet on cutting maize stalks: A preliminary investigation. Int J Agric & Biol Eng, 2019; 12(5): 64–70.
Highlights
Conservation agriculture (CA) advocates no or minimum soil disturbance, biomass mulch soil cover, and crop species diversification in agricultural practices[1]
CA is capable of mitigating the concerns of land resource degradation, as well as reducing the contribution to climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and contributing to carbon sequestration in soil
A large amount maize stalks/residue is relatively fresh and hard to cut following the maize harvest. This poses a dilemma in the summer maize and winter wheat cropping system, such that large amounts of maize residue could cause plugging of furrow openers and metering devices[7]
Summary
Conservation agriculture (CA) advocates no or minimum soil disturbance, biomass mulch soil cover, and crop species diversification in agricultural practices[1]. One of the key operations of CA is no-till direct seeding on biomass mulch cover land, which creates higher demands on seeding machinery[2,3]. Furrow opener could affect soil bulk density, cone index, sowing performance, and seed emergence[5,6], the performance of furrow opener of a no-till seeder for winter wheat has great influence on crop growth. A large amount maize stalks/residue is relatively fresh and hard to cut following the maize harvest. This poses a dilemma in the summer maize and winter wheat cropping system, such that large amounts of maize residue could cause plugging of furrow openers and metering devices[7]
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