Compaction of grass silage taking vibrating stresses into account

Abstract

In order to achieve higher compaction rates when storing wilted grass or chopped maize in clamp silos, some farmers use rollers with vibratory rolling elements to compress the material.  The study aimed to determine the effect of vibrating tools on the compaction of ensiled material.  Taking wilted grass as an example, experiments were conducted with a hydropulse system with quasi-static and vibrating compaction.  The results showed that the higher compaction performance observed in practice was due not to the vibratory movement of the rolling element, but instead to the additional vertical force resulting from the imbalance.

Keywords: vibrating compaction, grass silage, hydropulse system