IFS Exam 2012-Syllabus-Agricultural Engineering Paper 2

AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING

PAPER-II

Section- A

1. Farm power and machinery: Agricultural mechanization and its scope. Sources of farm power – animate and electromechanical. Thermodynamics, construction and working of internal combustion engines. Fuel, ignition, lubrication, cooling and governing system of IC engines. Different types of tractors and power tillers. Power transmission, ground drive, power take off (p.t.o.) and control systems. Operation and maintenance of farm machinery for primary and secondary tillage. Traction theory. Sowing transplanting and interculture implements and tools. Plant protection equipment – spraying and dusting. Harvesting, threshing and combining equipment. Machinery for earth moving and land development – methods and cost estimation. Ergonomics of man-machine system. Machinery for horticulture and agro-forestry, feeds and forages. Haulage of agricultural and forest produce.

2. Agro-energy: Energy requirements of agricultural operations and agro processing. Selection, installation, safety and maintenance of electric motors for agricultural applications. Solar (thermal and photovoltic), wind and bio-gas energy and their utilization in agriculture.

Gasification of biomass for running IC engines and for electric power generation. Energy efficient cooking stoves and alternate cooking fuels. Distribution of electricity for agricultural and agroindustrial applications.

Section- B

3. Agricultural Process Engineering: Post harvest technology of crops and its scope. Engineering properties of agricultural produces and by-products. Unit operations cleaning grading, size reduction, densification, concentration, drying/ dehydration, evaporation, filtration, freezing and packaging of agricultural produces and by-products. Material handling equipment-belt and screw conveyors, bucket elevators, their capacity and power requirement.

Processing of milk and dairy products – homogenisation, cream separation, pasteurisation, sterilization, spray and roller drying, butter making, ice cream, cheese and shrikhand manufacture. Waste and by-product utilization rice husk, rice bran, sugarcane bagasse, plant residues and coir pith.

4. Instrumentation and computer applications in Agricultural Engineering: Electronic devices and their characteristics rectifiers, amplifiers, oscillators, multivibrators. Digital circuits–sequential and combinational system. Application of microprocessors in data acquisition and control of agricultural engineering processes-measurement systems for level, flow, strain, force, torque, power, pressure, vacuum and temperature. Computer– introduction, input/output devices, central processing unit, memory devices, operating systems, processors, keyboards and printers. Algorithms, flowchart specification, programme translation and problem analysis in Agricultural Engineering. Multimedia and Audio-Visual aids.