Influence of microwave energy on mechanical strength in sugarcane

Sugarcane processing produces cane sugar (sucrose) from freshly harvested sugarcane through mechanical milling processes such as shredding and crushing. As sugarcane strength increases, not only do shredding and crushing forces, torques, energy, and temperatures increase but shredder hammer tools and crushing rollers also wear more rapidly. These cause high energy consumption, and high operation and maintenance costs in the sugar industry. To make sugarcane more processable, we employed heat treatment of sugarcane using microwave energy to soften sugarcane prior to its mechanical processing. In this paper, we report our investigation of the influence of microwave heating on the mechanical properties of sugarcane stalk internodes, including the Young's modulus, the yield strength and the ultimate strength during compressive testing. The results show that microwave heat treatment significantly reduces mechanical strength and stiffness of sugarcane so that treated sugarcane stalks become more processable in mechanical milling processes.

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7th Australasian Congress on Applied Mechanics

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978-1-922107-61-9

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