Análisis estructural del recipiente de cultivo y el cajón exterior de un lisímetro de pesada de bajo coste

Abstract

The lysimeters commonly used in agriculture are large and require an expensivecivil engineering work for the construction of the container that houses the lysimetervessel. In this communication we analyse the lysimeter vessel and container of a low costlysimeter designed to be used in horticultural farms. The container is the set of elementsthat ensure the containment of the ground, separating it from the lysimeter vessel. Thelysimeter vessel houses the reconstituted land where the plantation is developed and restson a weighing system. The weighing system records the weight changes of the water flowinputs and outputs in the lysimeter vessel, allowing the quantification of theevapotranspiration. In order to ensure a good performance of the lysimeter, the lysimeter vessel and the container must be separated, to prevent the deformations of its elementsfrom interfering with each other and modifying the weighing system measurements. Thelysimeter vessel and container were designed with the SolidWorks software and itsstructural behaviour is studied using SolidWorks Simulation. The resistance of the mainelements and the deformations that they undergo are analysed to performanceverification, which allows to establish the limitations during their use. The resultsobtained allow to check the validity of the design and its optimization.