Date of Award
2021
Document Type
Open Access Master's Report
Degree Name
Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering (MS)
Administrative Home Department
Department of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics
Advisor 1
Paul van Susante
Advisor 2
Guy Meadows
Committee Member 1
Andrew Barnard
Abstract
The current solutions for managing rooted aquatic invasive plants are time consuming, have negative environmental impacts, or are cost-limiting for management organizations. The most effective treatment method is hand pulling, but hand pulling is not a feasible solution for a whole lake. A new device, the invasive aquatic plant extractor, aims to replace human divers who hand pull plants with a mechanical system. The device implements a machine-plant interface that resembles the tines of a fork. These tines will be pushed linearly through the substrate, and then raised from the substrate with the plant caught in the tines. The primary purpose of this paper is to discuss the impacts of tine configuration and tine geometric traits on tine performance and identify tine geometry that consistently removes the target plants. Force, turbidity, and plant removal capability data were collected. All testing occurred in tanks containing representative substrate and common, rooted invasive plants. Wide tines with wide spacing perform the best of the four configurations tested. Tines with square or rounded edge shape perform better than pointed edges. Increasing the tine rake angle with respect to a vertical plane increases the performance of the tines. The data collected in this study suggests that tines will be part of an effective invasive aquatic plant extractor.
Recommended Citation
Baas, Brad, "INVESTIGATION OF A MACHINE-PLANT INTERFACE FOR EXTRACTING ROOTED INVASIVE AQUATIC PLANTS", Open Access Master's Report, Michigan Technological University, 2021.