Characteristics of A Agricultural Engineering System And Simple Problems

CLASSIFICATION OF AGRICULTURAL SYSTEM For practical purposes, the following factors were used for classification: The time scale of the system The uncertainties of events in the system Structure of the system

Within these classes, systems are named and classified according to the type of differential or difference equation of the mathematical model representing system. THE TIME SCALE There are two classes of systems as they relate to the time scale chosen for the mathematical model: Continuous system Discrete system

Continuous system: The time scale of continuous systems is the set of non negative real numbers. Continuous systems are called differentiable systems because they are represented by differential equations and their solutions. Problem 1: The following equation was fitted to the energy content of milk of a group of cows: Y = 2.821 + 0.965 e -0.0423t Where y is the energy content of milk in MJ/kg and t in days after calving. Determine the corresponding differential equation. Solution: The following is the first derivative of the state equation:
1

dy = 0.965e 0.0423t * (0.0423) dx

Where 0.965 e

-0.0423t

= y 2.821. After replacing values, the following is the differential

equation representing this system:

dy = 0.1193 = 0.0423 y dx

Where 0.1193 is the energy input and 0.0423y is the energy output in MJ/kg/day. Discrete system: The time scale of discrete system is the set of non negative integers. Discrete state variables cannot be fractionalized, meaning that the system cannot be represented by differential equations. This is the case of state of variables defined as number of individuals or as qualitative traits. Thus, the state changes are represented by difference equations. Problem 2: A rancher sells each month 3.6 % of his feedlot steers and buys 90 new animals. The initial number if steers is 460. Define the mathematical model of the system. Solution: This system is discrete because the state variable, number of steers, is discrete. The following equation represents the system:
y n +1 y n = 90 0.036 y n

Where n is months, yn is the number of steers corresponding to the present state of the system, yn+1 is the number of steers of the next state, x = 90 is the input as number of steers purchased and Zn = 0.036yn is the output as number of steers sold per month. The following is the corresponding state trajectory:
y n = 2500 2040(0.964) n

UNCERTAINTIES OF EVENTS Most of the inputs reaching agricultural systems cannot be controlled and occur in a random pattern. Therefore, the operation of all agricultural systems is subject to some kind of uncertainties. Then, depending on whether these uncertainties are considered in the mathematical model or are ignored, two types of systems evolve:

Stochastic system Deterministic system

Stochastic system: The basic feature of a stochastic model is that state variables are defined as probability distributions. Problem 3: Define the state probability distributions for the citrus trees (it was found that when the trees in a citrus farm are healthy, 20% get a disease within a year and when the trees are diseased, 30% of the trees recover), assuming binomial distribution of events. Solution: The following was the state joint distribution expression defined for the system, for the initial state P0 = (1,0):

Where m is the total number of trees. This expression corresponds to a deterministic model of the system. It is assumed that the variables have the binomial distribution, as shown below:

Where x1 and x2 are the number of healthy and diseased trees and p1 and p2 are the corresponding probabilities. Then, by replacing the Pn values in the binomial expression, it is possible to define the following state probability model of the system:

The probability distribution curves of diseased trees are shown below. The total number of trees was assumed to be 10.

Deterministic systems: In deterministic models, the states of the system are the expected values of the outcomes. Thus, deterministic models represent the expected or average behaviour of the system. The first four examples in this section were all deterministic models. A real system may be defined by a deterministic model or a stochastic model. Deterministic model are simpler and more widely used than stochastic models. Problem 4: The following is the deterministic model for the state equation of the previous example, expressed as expected values:

Where x1 is the expected number of healthy trees and x 2 is the expected number of diseased trees at time n. The graphic representation of expected values is shown below. The total number of trees is assumed to be 10.

STRUCTURE OF SYSTEM: The notion of structure of a system is related to how component systems are coupled to form a more complicated system. The following classification was adopted here: Interactive coupled systems Conjunctive coupled systems

Interactive coupled systems: Interacting systems may be coupled by means of interconnected differential or difference equations, determining the interactive coupling. Interactive agricultural systems may be arranged in two groups: Compartmental systems Non compartmental systems

Compartmental systems: Components of compartmental systems are called compartments. Such compartments work as chambers among which some material is considered to move. Problem 5: The movement of DDT from plant to soil is 25% per month, from soil to plant 2% and carried out with ground water 5%. Define the mathematical model of the system.

Solution: This system us represented by following figure. The following set of differential equations defines the flow of DDT in the system.

Fot Y = (yp, ys), where yp is a state of the plant compartment, ys is a state of the soil compartmental and t in months. Coefficients with positive signs are the compartment inputs and coefficients with positive signs are the compartment inputs and coefficients with negative signs are the compartmental outputs.

Non compartmental systems: Components of non compartmental systems sometimes are called back boxes, among which some information is considered to move. Problem 6: The following matrix equation defines the relationship between pasture yield and carrying capacity of Kikuyu pasture field, as affected by rainfall:

For Y = (y1,y2) where y1 is leaf growth in kg of dry matter per ha/day, y2 is the number of cows/ha and x is the rainfall in mm/month. Determine the input and output of the system. Solution: The mathematical model of the system has the form

The system input is rainfall, defined by the expression Bdx/dt +Cx and the system output is AY. The following figure shows the system black boxes exchanging information by input output relationships.

Conjunctive coupled systems: The idea of conjunctive coupling is that of a complex system where each of its components operated independently. This is the case, for example, of different plots or different experimental material, such that each plot is a component system and operates as a replication of experiment. Grouping of experimental material determines the sources of variation in a typical analysis of variance.