Gravimetric characteristics and friction parameters of common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.)

Abstract

When designing appropriate machinery systems, equipment, and infrastructures for interacting with, cultivating, gathering, and agriculture-related processing, it is required to have an understanding of the engineering characteristics of agricultural products. This unpredictability makes it difficult to design or develop machines that can efficiently and effectively manage a wide range of product characteristics. Experimental analysis was used to accomplish the study's objective, which was to investigate the implications of variation on the gravimetric characteristics and frictional parameters of common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) concerning the design of the threshing machine. The mean average values of gravimetric parameters were determined by analysing the experimental data: arithmetic mean diameter (7.042 ± 0.473 mm), geometric diameter (6.737 ± 0.463 mm), bulk density (781.20 ± 25.34 kg m-3), true density (1347.03 ± 143.0 kg m-3), porosity (41.385 ± 7.05%), width (6.316 ± 0.502 mm), thickness (4.962 ± 0.50 mm), projected area (49.194 ± 6.715 mm2), and volume of the seed (161.689 ± 3.778 mm3). The average moisture content values were found to be 11.214±1.185% on a dry basis, the static coefficient of friction varied between 0.276 and 0.386 on the surface of iron sheets, 0.294 to 0.435 on stainless steel, 0.317 to 0.434 on galvanized iron, 0.321 to 0.451 on medium density fiberboard, 0.319 to 0.480 on aluminum, 0.310 to 0.470 on painted sheets, 0.320 to 0.440 on glass, 0.333 to 0.447 on plastic, and 0.374 to 0.575 on rubber. Perforated sheet surfaces showed the highest static coefficients of friction, followed by rubber, plastic, plywood, glass, aluminum, galvanized iron, painted sheet, stainless steel, and iron sheet surfaces. These data are not only required for predicting loads in agricultural storage structures but are also needed to establish useful sources for the development of machinery for handling, cleaning, storing, transporting and drying, among other things.