Research article - Peer-reviewed, 2012
Simulation of harvester productivity in selective and boom-corridor thinning of young forests
Sängstuvall, Lars; Bergström, Dan; Lämås, Tomas; Nordfjell, TomasAbstract
Forest management practices may change in the future, due to increases in the extraction of forest fuel in first thinnings. Simulation models can be used to aid in developing new harvesting systems. We used such an approach to assess the productivity of innovative systems in various thinnings of young stands with wide ranges of mean breast height diameter (1.5 - 15.6 cm), stems per hectare (1000 - 19,100), and mean height (2.3 - 14.6 m). The results show that selective multiple-tree-handling increases productivity by 20 - 46% compared to single-tree handling. If the trees are cut in boom-corridors (10 * 1 or 2 m strips between strip roads), productivity increases up to 41%, compared to selective multiple-tree-handling. Moreover, if the trees are felled using area-based felling systems, productivity increases by 33 - 199%, compared to selective multiple-tree-handling. For any given harvesting intensity, productivity increased the most in the densest stands with small trees. The results were used to derive time consumption functions. Comparisons with time study results suggest that our simulation model successfully mimicked productivity in real-life forest operations, hence the model and derived functions should be useful for cost calculations and evaluating forest management scenarios in diverse standsKeywords
Bioenergy; forest fuel; geometric thinning; multiple-tree-handling; roundwood; single-tree handling; tree sections; time consumptionPublished in
Scandinavian Journal of Forest Research2012, volume: 27, number: 1, pages: 56-73
Publisher: TAYLOR & FRANCIS AS
Authors' information
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Forest Resource Management
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Forest Resource Management
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Forest Resource Management
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Forest Resource Management
Sustainable Development Goals
SDG7 Affordable and clean energy
UKÄ Subject classification
Renewable Bioenergy Research
Forest Science
Publication Identifiers
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02827581.2011.628335
URI (permanent link to this page)
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/56447