Determination of Design-Related Physical and Mechanical Properties of Palm Nut

Abstract

The knowledge of the physical dimensions and mechanical strength of agro-material/bio-materials is needed in the design and development of agricultural processing and handling machines. The physical properties were determined with help of oven dryer, vernier caliper and electronic weighing sale while the mechanical properties were determined with the help of 1000 KN Universal Materials Testing Machine (Enerpac), Cat.Nr.261, with reading accuracy of 0.01 KN. The physical properties of palm nuts determined in this study were geometric mean diameter, sphericity, projected area, surface area, arithmetic mean diameter, square mean diameter, flakiness ratio, and elongation ratio. These measurements were investigated at moisture content dry basis (17.42%) The mean value of geometric mean diameter is 18.84 mm, sphericity (0.758), projected area (366.7 ), square mean diameter (19.19 mm), arithmetic mean diameter (19.48 mm), flakiness ratio (0.81), elongation ratio (1.36) and volume (3808.5 ). The average crushing force for ten samples of palm nuts under vertical loading conditions is higher than the average crushing for ten samples of palm nuts under horizontal loading conditions. The average crushing force and compressive strength under vertical loading were 1765 N and 3.79 N/and the average crushing force and the compressive strength under horizontal loading was found to be 1428 N and 2.71 N/. The values of mechanical and physical properties will guide a palm nut cracker designer is selecting the appropriate speed of a beater, fan’s speed, hopper’s inclination, screening sizes. The overall objective of this study is to present adequate data that will enable machine developers to develop efficient palm nut/palm fruits processing machines.