STUDY ON THE MECHANIZATION OF FEED DISTRIBUTION IN AQUACULTURE

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Agric. Eng. Inst., Agric, Res. Cent., Dokki, Egypt

2 Agric. Eng. Dept., Fac. Agric. Zagazig Univ., Egypt

Abstract

The present research aimed to optimize some different operating parameters affecting the performance of the feed blowing machine to be used successfully for feeding fish in ponds. Two experiments were carried outfor this purpose. The first experiment was run in the laboratory underfourdifferent blower revolving speeds (1500, 1700, 2700 and 3000 rpm) and three types of blades (backward curved blades, radial blades and forward curved blades). The second experiment was run in the field under four different tractor forward speeds (2, 3.13, 4.5 and 6 km/hr.) and the same three types of blades at constant blower revolving speed of 2700 rpm.All experiments were conducted using floating type aquatic feed pellets. Performance of the feed blowing machine was evaluated in terms of distribution width, coefficient of variation, coefficient of uniformity, pellets flow rate, machine productivity, energy requirements and operational cost. The obtained results revealed that the optimum operating parameters for the feed blowing machine were 2700 rpm blower revolving speed with the use of forward curved blades at 3.13 km/hr., tractor forward speed. Under these parameters the coefficient of uniformity value was 0.945, coefficient of variation value was 1.56% and distribution width was 8 m. 

Keywords

Zagazig Journal of Agricultural Research
Volume 44, Issue 2
March 2017
Pages 693-707

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