20 July 1992 Lincoln Lecturer to Present Computer Modelling Paper at U.S. Conference

A Lincoln University lecturer's research paper on a computer simulation model for the drying of peanuts will stand alongside other papers on subjects as diverse as ballistic missiles, robotic manufacturing systems, communications, radar, undersea and aerospace systems, at the 1992 Summer Computer Simulation Conference being held in the United States.

Sponsored by the U.S. Computer Simulation Society, the conference, at Reno, Nevada, has attracted worldwide participation and over 350 original presentations.

Attending from Lincoln is Dr Don Kulasiri, a Lecturer with the University's Centre for Computing and Biometrics.

Dr Kulasiri's paper, which summarises five years' work, will be presented in association with two American colleagues from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech.). It is entitled "Development and Validation of a Simulation Model for Deep-Bed Drying of Peanuts" and it relates to research started when Dr Kulasiri was on the staff at Virginia Tech.

Peanuts are a major cash crop in Virginia and Dr Kulasiri was a member of a team engaged on a project to improve the efficiency of peanut dryers as part of United States energy conservation strategies. "Deep bed" refers to one of the methods of drying commercially grown peanuts.

Because peanuts are a seasonal crop and not always available for experimental work, the best approach to researching all the drying parameters – optimum temperatures, length of drying time, energy requirements, volumes able to be dried, achievable moisture content, etc. – was seen to be the development of a computer simulation model.

"Once you have an accurate simulation model you can run all sorts of trials and come up with a range of data and specifications for different situations and conditions. That was the objective of our work," says Dr Kulasiri.

The project was partly funded by the United States Department of Agriculture, the State of Virginia and Virginia Tech, and the presentation of the paper at the conference will be the first public exposition of the model developmental work.

Staff at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's research station in Holland, Virginia, are now using the model in their peanut quality assessment research.

Dr Kulasiri, who has been on the staff at Lincoln for the past 18 months says that distance has been no impediment to on-going contact with his American colleagues Professor David Vaughan and Professor John Cundiff. They have kept in touch across the globe by electronic mail, office to office.

Dr Kulasiri hopes to apply the modelling experience gained in Virginia to the research and teaching programme in simulation modelling being developed at Lincoln under the direction of Dr Alan McKinnon, Director of the University's Centre for Computing and Biometrics.

Ian Collins, Journalist, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand