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Western Canada has large acreage of oilseed flax, but unfortunately a small percentage of total crop residue (flax straw) produced annually is being commercially used. Therefore, farmers are still burning the flax straw. Flax fiber and straw has highest strength amongst the different natural fibers, therefore, the prospect of using them as biorenewable reinforcement in recycled/ virgin polymer matrices has gained attention in recent years. Flax strawboard has a potential to replace the currently used wood and other crop like wheat/barley straw boards for different industrial application. In this research Oilseed flax straw reinforced composite boards were developed using flax shives with biopolymer binder made out of recycled/ pure thermo plastic and flax fiber. Some advantages of such materials are high strength, low density, good insulation capacity against heat and moisture transfer, and biodegradability.

This work is based on comparative study of oilseed flax fibre and glass fibre reinforced composite boards for potential application in automotive industries. The material characterizations of flax and glass fibre-composites using unsaturated polyester as matrix were evaluated. Vacuum infusion was used for fabrication of composites. Flexural, tensile, water absorption and color tests were conducted on the composite boards. The density and the moisture content of flax/glass fibre mats were also measured. Three types of composite boards, including flax, glass and flax-glass sandwich were developed and characterized.

A new prototype of a single unit till-planting system suitable for Egyptian soil was designed, constructed, and tested under soil bin and field conditions. Measurements were taken for draft, soil mean weight diameter, and seedling emergence. Results indicated that there are potential benefits of using this system rather to other tillage systems under dry and hard soil conditions. An optimum seedbed was created for rapid seedling emergence. Combinations of tillage, planting, and fertilizer application were performed in a single operation to reduce power and time requirements for crop production.

Field tests in sandy loam and clay soils were conducted with simple vertical tillage tools up to a speed of 18 ms-1 (65 km h-1) to determine the influence of soil types on the high-speed performance of tillage tools and the detailed relationship between draft and speed. A non-linear, dynamic finite element method (FEM) was used to simulate the variation in tool draft witii cutting speed. The prospects of high-speed tillage were discussed on tie basis of these experimental and analytical results.

In order to use computer to carry out quick, accurate and economic design of product shape and colour, a package of AUTOLISP programs was developed which can be run under AUTOCAD main environment. Due to the limitation of AUTOCAD 11.0 and 12.0 in 3-D design of complex curved surface, the 3-D design functions were enhanced in the following aspects: (1) 3-D line JOIN and BREAK commands were developed to join and break 3-D polylines. SPIRAL command was designed to create 3-D cone or cylindrical spiral line. In addition, EFTURN and MEFTURN commands were developed to change the vertex sequence of polyline totally or midway. (2) 3-D elements and characters Existing subroutines were revised to directly generate Box, Cone, Pyramid, Dome or Dish, Torus, Sphere and Wedge ready for solid modeling. Furthermore, CONVEX, HOLE and TUBE commands were developed to generate different kinds of convex, hole and tube respectively.

Understanding the Relationships between plants and soil is important in the development of methods of crop production. Although physical properties of soil conducive to plant growth can be recognized by experienced observers, many of these properties have not been defined satisfactorily in mathematical or physical terms. A method of measuring penetration resistance and energy exerted by a mechanical seedling (a steel probe simulating a seedling) as it moved upward through the soil surface under different levels of surface compaction and soil moisture was examined. Mechanical seedlings with 2.06, 3.19 and 4.65 mm tip diameters were tested at soil moisture levels of 13, 17, and 20%. The penetration rate of the mechanical seedling while moving through the soil was held constant at 10 mm/min. Results showed that the emergence energy increased directly with soil surface compaction pressure, initial soil moisture content, and mechanical seedling diameters.

A knowledge-based system for agricultural tillage equipment selection and management is presented. There are ten tillage systems suitable for corn and soybean production in Ontario. These systems manipulate the soil by different amounts resulting in varying levels of soil degradation, crop yields, and weed problems. Many factors, such as soil characteristics, climate, farm economics, and environmental impact make the selection of the most appropriate tillage practice a difficult task. Except for mouldboard plough, few farmers have experience operating and managing these tillage systems. Knowledge and information obtained from three experts is incorporated into the knowledge-based computer program to aid farmers in the selection and management of tillage systems. Selection criteria included in the program are environmental impact, management difficulty, economic return, and energy output/input ratio.

One of the major problem in an injection-type agricultural sprayer is measuring and controlling the flow rate of the concentrated chemicals. An electro-mechanical feedback system was designed to control the chemical concentrate flow rate in an injection-type sprayer. The system works well for a fluid with viscosity from 90 to 300 mPa.s and a flow rate from 3 to 20 mL/s (0.1 to 0.68 oz/s). A linear relationship was achieved between the flow rate and metering pump speed. The system also showed a good dynamic performance.