Hamid Ghasemkhani

With knowledge of agricultural products behaviour, it is possible to design and fabricate the best operation machine. To design a new hedge trimmer machine, the bending behavior analysis of buxus stalks including, bending force, bending strength and Young’s modulus were carried out at the different loading rate and internode position as a function of applying force direction. Given that the cross-section of the stalk is oval, the stalk specimens were performed in a quasi-static process at three loading rate of 5, 10, 15 and 20 mm min-1, three internode positions of fifth, tenth and fifteenth and two directions of applying force of oval major (x direction) and minor (y direction) diameters. The results showed, the loading rate of 20 mm min-1 had about 20-30% and 15-20% lower value for the bending force and bending strength than that of the 5 mm min-1 for all stalk regions and both applying force directions. Also, the loading rate of 20 mm min-1 had about 50-70% and 35-40% lower values for the Young’s modulus than that of the 5 mm min-1 at x and y directions of applying force respectively for all stalk regions. The fifteenth internode had about 40-48%, 35-37% lower value for the bending force and bending strength than that of the fifth internode position for all loading rates and both applying force directions. Also, the fifteenth internode position had about 50-80% and 40-60% lower values for the Young’s modulus than that of the fifth internode position at x and y directions of applying force respectively for all stalk regions.