Studies on some Physical and Engineering properties of Finger Millet for Designing Thresher

Author: Kishan Kumar Patel, R.K. Naik, Geeta Patel and Shubham Pandey

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Abstract

Finger millet also known as Ragi is an important staple food for the tribal region of Chhattisgarh. The knowledge of physical and engineering properties of the finger millet grains were important while designing of different agriculture machines. Present study was conducted to determine some of the physical and engineering properties of some finger millet grains varieties for designing of different components of finger millet thresher. The properties such as GMD, sphericity, volume, surface area, 1000 grain weight, bulk density, true density, porosity, coefficient of friction, angle of repose and terminal velocity were determined in the moisture range of 7 to 25 per cent db for three varieties of finger millet grain namely Indira Ragi 1, Chhattisgarh 2 and GPU 28. The result showed that GMD, sphericity, volume, surface area 1000 grain weight, coefficient of friction, angle of repose and terminal velocity increased with increase in moisture content for all the varieties. The values for these properties ranged between 1.33 to 1.52 mm, 0.92 to 0.94, 1.12 to 1.68 mm3, 5.62 to 7.26 mm2, 2.26 to 2.74 g, 0.39 to 0.43, 20.72 to 29.97 o and 4.15 to 5.93 m/s, respectively. The bulk density, true density and porosity of grains decreased with increase in moisture content for all three varieties. The values ranged between 755.67 to 676.45 kg/m3, 1510.96 to 1000.71 kg/m3 and 49.99 to 32.40 per cent, respectively.

Keywords

Engineering properties, moisture content, finger millet, physical properties, sphericity

Conclusion

The present study provides the basic information about moisture dependent engineering properties of finger millet plant and its grain. In this study the effect of moisture content and variety of finger millet at different physical properties like, GMD,1000 grain weight, bulk density, true density, coefficient of friction, terminal velocity, angle of repose, were determined. Physical properties of finger millet grains were significantly varies with different moisture content and result shows that the properties are not significantly differ from variety to variety. These properties are very useful for designing different component of finger millet thresher such as feeding chute, aspirator design, blower fan size, output size and slope, cylinder dimensions etc.

References

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How to cite this article

Patel, K. K., Naik, R. K., Patel, G. and Pandey S. (2022). Studies on some Physical and Engineering properties of Finger Millet for Designing Thresher. Biological Forum – An International Journal, 14(4): 387-393.