Search results for "forest"
showing 10 items of 3780 documents
Dielectric spectroscopy as a potential technique for prediction of kiwifruit quality indices during storage
2019
Dielectric spectroscopy has been employed as a simple, low cost and a non-destructive way for prediction of some physicochemical indices of kiwifruit during storage. A parallel-plate capacitor was developed and supplied with sinusoidal voltage waves within a frequency range of 40 kHz – 20 MHz. Dielectric properties of samples were measured by the dielectric sensor. Additionally, changes associated with fruit ripening properties, including firmness, total soluble solid (TSS) and pH were determined as a function of time at 2 °C. The results showed that storage time significantly affected the quality characteristics of kiwifruit. Artificial neural networks (ANNs) were employed to develop model…
Flow resistance law under suspended sediment laden conditions
2020
Abstract The uniform flow resistance equation, in the form due to Manning or Darcy-Weisbach, is widely applied to establish the stage-discharge relationship of a river cross-section. The application of this equation, namely the slope-area method, allows to indirectly measure the corresponding river discharge by measurements of bed slope, water level, cross-section area, wetted perimeter and an estimate of channel roughness. In this paper, a recently deduced flow resistance equation for open channel flow was tested during conditions of suspended sediment-laden flow. First, the flow resistance equation was determined by dimensional analysis and by applying the condition of incomplete self-sim…
A shear test for structural adhesives used in the consolidation of old timber
2001
A test method was developed specifically for structural adhesives used in thick joints. It is based on compressive shear loading of glued joints (GJ) and solid wood (SW) specimens, before and after a suitable accelerated ageing cycle. The evaluation of results is based on the ratios of wet strength to dry strength and on the comparison of GJ specimens to SW specimens which are prepared from the same batch of wood, in order to minimise the influence of the variability in wood characteristics. On a group of 10 epoxy-based adhesives, specifically marketed for the consolidation of old timber structures, the method has proved to be effective to differentiate the performances of each product. Amo…
Using the single-ring infiltrometer method to detect temporal changes in surface soil field-saturated hydraulic conductivity
2004
Abstract Determining temporal changes in field-saturated hydraulic conductivity ( K fs ) is important for understanding and modelling hydrological phenomena at the field scale. Little is known about the sensitivity of temporal change estimates to the method used for measuring K fs . The objective of this study was to compare temporal changes in K fs obtained in the surface layer of a clayey soil using two application procedures of the single-ring infiltrometer method. Rings installed permanently at the beginning of a 1.5-year study period (permanent sites, PSs, sample size N =16) and rings installed immediately before conducting the infiltrometer measurement (non-permanent sites, NPSs, N =1…
On the influence of orientation upon the mechanical behavior of oakwood in a general state of stress
1995
Influence of orientation upon the mechanical behavior of oakwood has been studied. The approach within anisotropic medias mechanics supposes oakwood orthotropic with three orthogonal symmetry axes considered to be the privileged directions that occur during the growth of oaktree. Experimental tests consisted in compression tests under confining pressure realized on cylindric samples of oakwood chopped in 18 privileged directions. Although well known in solid mechanics, our approach is original in mechanics and rheology of wood. The obtained results disclosed an influence of the confining pressure upon the mechanical behavior of oakwood and its anisotropy including different types of anisotr…
Hygroexpansivity of anisotropic sheets
2015
Dimensional instability, more particularly its component hygroexpansivity, may cause problems in process or end-use situations in which paper or board is in contact with water or subject to changes in ambient relative humidity. Misregistration in printing, curl during copying and calender wrinkles are examples of such defects. In this paper, the in-plane hygroexpansivity of oriented laboratory sheets with different pulps and dried both freely and under restraint is studied. A linear relationship between the drying shrinkage and hygroexpansion coefficient of freely dried laboratory sheets having different fiber orientation anisotropies, was observed. Regardless of both the measurement direct…
Testing laboratory methods to determine the anisotropy of saturated hydraulic conductivity in a sandy–loam soil
2009
Abstract Anisotropy, a (the log of the ratio of horizontal to vertical conductivity, log 10 ( K h / K v )), of saturated soil hydraulic conductivity, K s , affects transport processes in soil but is not routinely measured, probably because practical and validated methods are lacking. The objective of this investigation was to determine the effects of different constant-head laboratory and sampling procedures on anisotropy of saturated hydraulic conductivity measurements. The sequence of K s measurements was varied (vertical conductivity, K v , first, then horizontal, K h , second and vice versa) for an experimental set-up considering five variables: 1) water ponding type (Mariotte or siphon…
Relaxation of wet paper by simulations and laboratory-scale experiments
2009
Numerical studies of fiber networks and experiments on wet paper show that tensile force relaxes linearly as a function of logarithmic time. Relaxation rate is faster for wet than dry paper. Simulated permanent deformation after relaxation is clearly higher than that measured in wet paper.
Influence of mode stirrer and air renewal on controlled microwave drying of sliced zucchini
2017
An on-line temperature-controlled microwave (MW) system, based on infrared thermography, was developed for drying zucchini slices. Moreover, the effects of different configurations, including turntable rotation, mode stirrer and air renewal, alone or in combination, on drying kinetics and quality of dried product were evaluated. The combination of stirrer and air renewal reduced the drying time of zucchini slices by about 48% with respect to the basic configuration and by 22% with respect to air renewal only. The lowest oscillation of temperatures about the fixed level (65 °C) was found when operating with the stirrer mode, because of the improved uniformity of the MW distribution. The sa…
Comparison of 3D structural characteristics of high and low resolution X-ray microtomographic images of paper
2005
The detailed 3D structure of paper was revealed applying both high and low resolution X-ray microtomography. The qualityof the two techniques with respect to resolution and volume size was compared by measuring various structural andtransport properties of the digital volumes.