Determination of fuel and power requirement of a branch shredder for different vineyard pruning wastes

The aim of the study was to determine the fuel consumption, torque and power requirement of a shredder machine used in the shredding of vineyard pruning wastes of different grape varieties. In the study, pruning wastes of Boğazkere, Öküzgözü and Şire grape cultivars, which are widely grown in Diyarbakır region, were used for tests. The experimens were carried out at three different rotation speeds of the engine (1500, 2000, 2500 rpm) and feeding rates (kg/h). Depending on these parameters fuel consumption, moment values and power were measured. The branch shredder machine has a 15 HP powerful. There are three chopper blades on the machine. The blades are driven by gasoline engine with the a belt and pulley system. According to obtained test results, per hour fuel consumption, power requirement and moment values increased for all three cultivars depending on the increase in the number of rotation of the blades, both at unloaded and under load. The highest fuel consumption was observed in Boğazkere cultivar, followed by Öküzgözü and Şire varieties, respectively. While the highest fuel consumption value was found as 1.535 kg/h in Boğazkere cultivar, the lowest value was obtained as 0.918 kg/h in Şire cultivar. A similar situation was obtained for power values. The power also increased with the increase in the number of blade revolutions While the highest power consumption value was obtained as 5.560 kW in Boğazkere cultivar, the lowest value was obtained as 3.326 kW in Şire cultivar. Here, there was no statistical difference between Boğazkere and Öküzgözü cultivars, but there was a significant difference between these cultivars and Şire cultivar. When the moment values of the cultivars were examined, the difference between cultivars was found to be very significant (p<0.01). The highest value was obtained as 26.26 Nm in Boğazkere variety, the variety with the highest Power and Fuel consumption value, while the lowest value was obtained as 15.65 Nm in Şire variety, which also had low fuel and power requirements.