Tver State Technical University, Tver, Russia

A. L. Yablonev, Deputy Head of Department, Doctor of Engineering Sciences, Professor, alvovich@mail.ru

Sod peat production can significantly solve the fuel problem in non-gasified areas and provide population with cheap local fuel. The quality of sod peat is characterized by two parameters—density, which determines the calorific value, and strength, which governs shelf life. Since the entire course of technological operations for the extraction of sod peat is associated with bending deformations, it is obvious that bending strength should be the estimation parameter for the sod peat quality. At TSTU, a stand was developed and manufactured for assessing the bending strength of moulded peat products based on the calculation of the moment of resistance to cutting. But the methodology for its application was designed for testing only round and rectangular samples. Over the past few years, the range of sod peat shapes has expanded significantly and already includes trapezoidal, square-hollow and tubular blocks. The article presents a methodology for assessing all listed forms of sod peat using the developed stand and concludes that the most rational shape is tubular. For the tubular sod peat, again, by analyzing the moment of resistance to cutting, it is found that the optimum ratio of the internal and external diameters of a piece is a value from 0.2 to 0.4. From the mandatory condition of uniform drying of a tubular block, the rational cross-section dimensions are obtained for a tubular block with a wall thickness of 40 to 60 mm, which meet the requirements of manufacturability and bending strength.

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