The Compression and Solidity of the Plant (I)

Abstract

For the fundamental studies of the hay wafer, compression tests were done and the mechanical characteristics of the grasses, such as their frictional coefficients, moment of flection and flexural rigidity were investigated. Wafers for this investigation were made in cylinder and pistion-type compression chamber.
1) Increasing the moisture content of the plant gave an increase in the coefficient of friction and the moment of flection. The flexural rigidities were minimum between 40-60 percent water content, wet basis (wb).
2) The pressure of piston can be represented with following equations.
p_k=a⋅exp⋅bs^m p_k=α⋅exp⋅βρⁿ
where, s=piston displacement, ρ=density of wafer, the others=constants.
3) The solidity of wafer is good as the flexural rigidity and the moment of flection decrease, but it is not good as they are too small.
4) At high moisture content, water is compressed out, and the solidity of wafer after releasing the pressure is bad. The moisture content for good solidity of wafer is different on the plants.
5) The handling durability of the short cutted, material and chaffs were very bad. This is probably due to the non-existence of interlocking fibers in the wafer.
6) Increasing the pressure gave good solidity.
7) By allowing the wafers to stand for long time after releasing the pressure, the expansion became insignificant but the rate of expansion was great just after releasing the pressure. The rate of expansion decreased as the sample volume increased.