Research Centre Bygholm - an international testing centre

The Department of Agricultural Engineering is a part of The Faculty of Agricultural Sciences (DJF), University of Aarhus. The university is Denmark’s second largest. DJF aims to conduct research and accumulate knowledge of importance to agriculture, and to educate bachelors, master students and PhD students. Emphasis is on responsible resource utilization, environmental impacts both internally and externally, animal welfare, and the quality and competitiveness of the products.

Research Centre Bygholm
DJF's Department of Agricultural Engineering is located at Research Centre Bygholm (RCB). The centre encompasses the technical aspects of agricultural buildings and machinery; RCB conducts research and development within the fields of farm buildings, mechanical engineering and organic farming. Research includes development of farm robots, sustainable livestock housing systems, all aspects of manure handling from animal to field, working environment, precision farming, control and process techniques, etc.

Besides the basic and applied research, the department carries out development work in collaboration with organizations, industry associations, manufacturers and others. RCB also carries out testing tasks, i.e., manufacturers of equipment, machinery, etc., can have their products tested. RCB is authorized to carry out statutory testing in connection with type approvals, etc. This work is done on a self-financing basis, which means that the client pays all the costs involved with the implementation of the job.

The Spreading Technical Laboratory
The laboratory is used for research into and testing and development of equipment primarily intended for spreading of solid matter, such as commercial fertilisers, lime, compost and salt for winter service.

With its unique facilities and the dimensions of the spreading hall (60 x 80 m) complying with European requirements, the laboratory is one of the largest of its kind in Europe. In the climate controlled hall the air humidity and the minimum temperature can be kept constant.

The materials may be spread over a width of 56 m and collected in 112 trays each measuring 0.50 x 0.50 m. The material in each tray is weight by single point load cells and recorded once a second.

The Spreading Technical Laboratory is used for official European tests as well as for commercial product development purposes on a contractual basis.

 

Tractor Testing Laboratory
According to the EU Machinery Directive, tractors and other vehicles equipped with overhead protective structures (cabs) must pass a special testing and approval procedure. Research Centre Bygholm is one of a number of European test stations certified for this kind of tests. Interested parties may order our Quality Handbook (in Danish, partly in English) with description of the test procedures.

Animal Manure Laboratory The Animal Manure Laboratory is a flexible experimental unit that can be used for a multitude of experiments with animal manure. The laboratory can be used for e.g. studies of biogas production, animal slurry separation, gas emission during storage of solid manure, ammonia emission from slurry channels and nitrogen and carbon transformation during animal manure storage. Among the equipment are four pilot scale biogas reactors. Ventilation Test Laboratory, incl. wind tunnel

The ventilation test rig at Research Centre Bygholm can provide performance test data for inlet and outlet units with fans and non-fan ventilation units. The airflow rate is measured with nozzles covering flow ranges from 50 to 70 000 m³/h. Tests are carried out in accordance with a common test procedure for Germany, The Netherlands and Denmark “DLG/IMAG-DLO/SjF Gebrauchswertprü­fung von Stallventilatoren sowie von Zuluft- und Ablufteinheiten mit eingebauten Venti­latoren, DLG D/81”

Air Physics Laboratory

The Air Physics Laboratory is a flexible facility for research into airflow patterns and air transportation phenomena in animal rooms. The laboratory is well equipped to measure air velocity, temperature, moisture, dust, and gas concentrations. Full scale room conditions can be simulated for controlled studies of airflow velocities and direction, dust and gas transport and air exchange efficiencies. The facility is available for evaluation of commercial climatization equipment.

Further information

Please visit our homepage www.agrsci.dk/jbt, especially the testing facilities.

Key words Testing, agricultural research, distribution of solid materials, fertilizers, lime, compost, salt , overhead protective structures, approval procedure, animal manure handling, animal manure testing, slurry, biogas, biogas reactors, ammonia emission, wind tunnel, ventilation performance testing, air physics, airflow patterns, animal rooms, climatization