Effects of some cutting blades and plant factors on specific cutting energy of sugarcane stalk

摘要: Design and development of equipments to cut plant material requires some basic data to avoid waste of energy on a wide area. In this research, the effect of some plant and blade factors on specific cutting energy (SCE) requirements to cut sugarcane stalk was investigated using pendulum method. A pendulum-like apparatus was designed and calibrated. SCE in this research means energy requirement per area per dry matter (d. m) density of section of cut (J/g. cm-1). Blade factors included knife velocity and knife angle; while plant factors included moisture content, cane cutting position from node or internodes and maturity degree by one month of time difference. A 3-replicate factorial experiment with completely randomized design (CRD) layout was used. Results showed that minimum SCE of 0.21 J/g. cm-1 of dry matter was obtained with a minimum knife velocity of 1.34 m/s (P< 0.05), minimum moisture content of 48%(P< 0.01) and also with lower degree of maturity (P< 0.01). Knife angle and cutting position (node or internodes) had no significant effect on SCE. Then the relationship between SCE and moisture content was extracted.