EFFECT OF VARIOUS OPERATIONAL AND DESIGN PARAMETERS ON THE PERFORMANCE OF A ROTARY FEEDING AND CUTTING SYSTEM

There has been extensive research completed in the area of biomass cutting, specifically, cutting plant material. However, there has been very little research completed with a focus on rotary feeding and cutting system (RFCS). A RFCS is a hybrid cutter which employs characteristics of both a sickle type cutter and a precision type cutter. With limited data available on the factors that affect the performance of a RFCS it has been assumed that the factors that affect the cutting performance of a sickle type cutter or a precision type cutter have the same influence on the performance of a RFCS. To validate these assumptions laboratory tests were conducted to investigate the effect of counter-knife sharpness, rotor speed, and throughput on the specific energy required to process barley straw. It was concluded that the only statistically significant factor (p 0.05) was counter-knife sharpness. The specific energy requirements to process barley straw at an average moisture content of 13 % wet basis was 0.39±0.16** for a sharp counter-knife and 0.74±0.08** for a dull counter-knife.