Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

INFLUENCE OF BLADE TYPES, CUTTING VELOCITY AND STALKDIAMETER OF SORGHUM CROP ON CUTTING ENERGY ANDCUTTING FORCE

Raghavendra Veerammanavara, Veerangouda M., Sushilendra, Vijayakumar Palled,SharangoudaHiregoudar and Channabasavann A.S.

Abstract

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.) popularly known as “Jowar”, a cereal grain found in tropical and subtropicalclimate. India ranks fifth in total sorghum production with 4.7 million tonnes (USDA, 2020). Sorghum isgrown in India in an area about 4.82 m ha with production of 4.78 m tonnes and productivity of 989 kg/ha.In Karnataka, it is grown in 0.94 m ha with a production of 0.98 million tonnes and productivity of 945kg/ha (INDIASTAT, 2020). A designed and fabricated laboratory test-rig of a pendulum impact tester wasused to conduct the experiment in the Department of Farm Machinery and Power Engineering, College ofAgricultural Engineering, Raichur. The experiment was conducted to determine the engineering propertiesof sorghum stalk. The independent variables viz., two types of blades (smooth edge and serrated blade),four levels different stalk diameters (12, 16, 20, 24 mm) and three levels of blade cutting velocity (4.40, 6.30,7.40 m/s) were selected. Results showed that the maximum cutting energy of 35.47 J was recorded at ablade cutting velocity of 4.40 ms-1 at 24 mm stalk diameter and the least cutting energy of 5.23 J wasrecorded for 12 mm stalk diameter at blade cutting velocity of 7.40 ms-1 for serrated blade for smooth edgeblade and the more cutting energy was recorded of 28.65 J for 24 mm stalk diameter at blade cutting velocityof 4.40 ms-1 and the least cutting energy 3.55 J were recorded for 12 m stalk diameter at 7.40 ms-1 for serratedcutting blade. The maximum cutting force of 1477.92 N was recorded at a blade cutting velocity of 4.40 ms-1 at 24 mm stalk diameter. The least cutting force of 435.81 N was recorded for 12 mm stalk diameter atblade cutting velocity of 7.40 ms-1 for smooth edge blade and for serrated cutting blade, the more cuttingforce was recorded of 1193.75 N for 24 mm stalk diameter at blade cutting velocity of 4.40 ms-1 and the leastcutting energy 295.84 N were recorded for 12 m stalk diameter at 7.40 ms-1.