Experimental Study on Mechanical Properties of Connections between Alfalfa Leaves and Stems

摘要

During the dlfalfa harvest process, leaf loss means low quality of alfalfa hay product A laboratory tensile test was conducted to investigate the mechanical properties of connections between alfalfa leaves and stems. The effect of tensile direction and moisture content was evaluated. Tensile direction varies from along the direction of leaves growth (ALG) to perpendicular to the direction of stem (PS) to against the direction of leaves growth (AGG), which leads to different failure mode. Average maximum tensile failure load (AML) and the ratio between AML and cross-sectional area (RLA) was measured. During the test, ALG shows the highest AML and RLA while AGG was lowest The middle part of plant shows highest AML, while highest RLA comes from top part Moisture content was another effecting factor of AML, AML decreases with the decrease of moisture content, which is close to a linear relationship.