As an abundant natural resource in Asia, bamboo is receiving increased attention as an engineering material due to its renewability and excellent strength. The parallel-to-grain compression and shearing properties of moso bamboo culm were examined. The growth characteristics (bamboo age, nodes, and location along the culm), as well as treatments for practical applications (hole punching and hoo...

BACKGROUND The time required to harvest plant crops is important to the plant properties. It is affected by design of the harvest equipment and the desire for high-quality products with low energy usage. MATERIALS AND METHODS Strength characteristics of Origanum onites L., an important medicinal aromatic plant, harvested on 2, 9, 16 and 23 July, 2012-2014 (H1, H2, H3 and H4, respectively) wer...

Shearing stress of wheat stalk was measured for four moisture content levels (15, 25, 35 and 45%, w.b.), three cutting heights (100, 200 and 300 mm), two types of cutting knives, smooth and serrated edge and three blades oblique angle (0, 15 and 30 deg.). The results of data analysis showed that the shearing stress of wheat stems decreased as the moisture content decreased. The shearing force o...

Stem and peduncle bending by the weight of the flower is one of the main postharvest problems in gerbera (Gerbera jamesonii Bolus.) and sometimes caused stem crushing or water loss. In this research, silicon and salicylic acid were applied to enhance the mechanical strength of inflorescence stem, and the results revealed that stem curving was decreased by silicon and salicylic acid treatments. ...

The shearing of natural fractures is important in the permeability enhancement of shale gas reservoirs during hydraulic fracturing treatment. In this work, the shearing mechanisms of natural fractures are analyzed using a newly proposed numerical model based on the displacement discontinuities method. The fluid-rock coupling system of the model is carefully designed to calculate the shearing of...