A mechanical model for compression behaviour of water hyacinth

摘要

Water hyacinth is known as a noxious weed, which has posed ecological and economic problems in several countries. The greatest problem of processing of water hyacinth is its volume and weight. It necessitates handling and disposing off 9.2 tons of water for every tone of dry matter. In order to overcome this problem bulk mechanical properties of water hyacinth have been studied. A spring-dashpot model was developed to represent the compression behavior of water hyacinth. Water hyacinth was chopped and compression tests were carried out on computerised Houns field's Universal Testing Machine. The results will help in designing a mechanical system for reducing the bulk of water hyacinth during its transportation. The processed water hyacinth can be utilized for various useful applications.