Abstract
A tool was developed in order to plan and design concrete manure tanks and to specify the composted product piles. A mathematical model was developed. Subsequently, the tool was developed by integrating the mathematical model into a specially developed electronic spark map. The developed spark map (decision tree) is able to specify the manure tank dimensions according to the planned storage volume, compute the required amounts of construction materials to build the tank, and calculate the capital investment and the fixed, variable, and total costs. On the other hand, the mathematical model of the spark map requires some input data. According to these data, the spark map will make calculations and show the output data automatically. Data of 3 concrete manure tanks were used to carry out the model validation. The differences between actual and calculated values were determined, and the standard deviations were calculated. The coefficients of variation were 2.5%, 4.3%, 4.2%, 5.8%, and 5.6% for amounts of concrete, gravels, cement, sand, and iron rods, respectively.
