Electronic Journal of Polish Agricultural Universities (EJPAU) founded by all Polish Agriculture Universities presents original papers and review articles relevant to all aspects of agricultural sciences. It is target for persons working both in science and industry,regulatory agencies or teaching in agricultural sector. Covered by IFIS Publishing (Food Science and Technology Abstracts), ELSEVIER Science - Food Science and Technology Program, CAS USA (Chemical Abstracts), CABI Publishing UK and ALPSP (Association of Learned and Professional Society Publisher - full membership). Presented in the Master List of Thomson ISI.
2020
Volume 23
Issue 2
Topic:
Agricultural Engineering
ELECTRONIC
JOURNAL OF
POLISH
AGRICULTURAL
UNIVERSITIES
Mirzabe A. , Chegini G. , Massah J. , Khazaei J. 2020. SEPARATING SUNFLOWER SEEDS OUT FROM RECEPTACLES BY TWO AIR-JETS IN STATIC, LINEAR, AND ROTATIONAL MOVEMENT STATES
DOI:10.30825/5.ejpau.186.2020.23.2, EJPAU 23(2), #02.
Available Online: http://www.ejpau.media.pl/volume23/issue2/abs-02.html

SEPARATING SUNFLOWER SEEDS OUT FROM RECEPTACLES BY TWO AIR-JETS IN STATIC, LINEAR, AND ROTATIONAL MOVEMENT STATES
DOI:10.30825/5.EJPAU.186.2020.23.2

Amir Hossein Mirzabe1, Gholam Reza Chegini2, Jafar Massah2, Javad Khazaei2
1 Department of Mechanical Engineering of Biosystems, College of Agriculture & Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
2 Department of Mechanical Engineering of Biosystems, College of Aboureihan, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

 

ABSTRACT

In order to eliminate some problems of traditional and mechanical methods of separating sunflower seeds from the receptacles, a new method based on impingement jets was innovated. The effect of the seeds' location, reservoir pressure, nozzle diameter, and the distance between the two nozzles on the separating area of sunflower receptacle, in three different states including, static, linear movement of sunflower receptacle, and rotational movement of nozzles were examined. Also theoretical areas of covered region by the two nozzles in the three different states were calculated. The regions separated by impingement of the air-jet were photographed and the area of the separated regions was calculated based on image processing technique. Also, for the three states, power consumption of compressor was calculated. Moreover, in each state, response surface methodology was used to find the five best optimized points. In the static state, maximum and minimum values of area of separated regions in the central, middle, and side region of sunflower receptacle were equal to 2.63 and 1.39, 3.83 and 1.96, and 4.02 and 2.12 cm2, respectively. In the linear movement state, maximum and minimum values of area of separated regions in the central, middle, and side region of sunflower receptacle were equal to 9.78 and 5.72, 16.19 and 10.02, and 17.43 and 11.15 cm2, respectively. The corresponding values for rotational movement state were 9.33 and 5.14, 128.98 and 86.12, and 241.89 and 157.65 cm2, respectively. Obtained results by variance analyzing showed that in all three states and in each region, effects of independent input factors were significant at probability level of 1%. Also in all tests, no seed was observed to be damaged due to air-jet impinging.

Key words: Sunflower; Image processing; Impingement jet; Power consumption; Optimization.


Amir Hossein Mirzabe
Department of Mechanical Engineering of Biosystems, College of Agriculture & Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
Telephone: 098 3153239185
Cell phone: 0989399442161
a_h_mirzabe@yahoo.com
email: a_h_mirzabe@alumni.ut.ac.ir

Gholam Reza Chegini
Department of Mechanical Engineering of Biosystems, College of Aboureihan, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
Telephone: 098 21 360 406 14
Cell phone: 0989126356329
email: chegini@ut.ac.ir

Jafar Massah
Department of Mechanical Engineering of Biosystems, College of Aboureihan, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
Telephone: 098 21 360 406 14
Cell phone: 0989198028454
email: jmassah@ut.ac.ir

Javad Khazaei
Department of Mechanical Engineering of Biosystems, College of Aboureihan, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
Telephone: 098 21 360 406 14
Cell phone: 0989123880128
email: jkhazaei@ut.ac.ir

Responses to this article, comments are invited and should be submitted within three months of the publication of the article. If accepted for publication, they will be published in the chapter headed 'Discussions' and hyperlinked to the article.