From an engineering standpoint, few papers on crop residue shearing have been published, especially with respect to sugarcane and information on the subject is scarce. Therefore, the objective of this work was to study the behavior of sugarcane trash submitted to shearing, as a function of its moisture content, thickness of trash layer and the oblique angle of the blade. A strength transducer, connected to the base of the blades and to an automatic data logger, was utilized to collect data, working at an acquisition rate of 9600 Hz. Results showed significant differences in the required strength when the oblique angle of the blade is changed, and a linear trend with the amount of trash between 4 and 16 t ha-1. The strength requirement and the energy demand showed an exponential behavior with changes in moisture content of sugarcane trash. For moisture content above 28% (dry basis), the differences between required shearing strengths and energy demands were no longer significant. The maximum shearing strength showed a linear trend which was inversely proportional to the oblique angle of the blade.
mechanization; sugarcane trash; shearing strength
