Crushing susceptibility of vetch seeds under impact loading

Abstract

Mechanical damage of seeds due to harvest, handling and other process is an important factor that affects the quality and quaintly of seeds. The objective of this research was to determine the effects of moisture content and the impact energy on the breakage susceptibility of vetch seeds. The experiments were conducted at moisture contents of 7.57 to 25% (wet basis) and at the impact energies of 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3 J, using an impact damage assessment device. The results showed that impact energy, moisture content, and the interaction effects of these two variables significantly influenced the percentage breakage in vetch seeds (p<0.01). Increasing the impact energy from 0.1 to 0.3 J caused a significant increase in the mean values of seeds breakage from 41.69 to 78.67%. It was found that the relation between vetch seeds moisture content and seeds breakage was non-linear, and the extent of damaged seeds decreased significantlyas a polynomial (from 92.47 to 33.56%) with increasing moisture (from 7.57 to 17.5%) and reached a minimum at moisture level of about 17.5%. Further increase in seed moisture, however, caused an increase in the amount of seeds breakage. Mathematical relationships composed of seed moisture content and impact energy, were developed for accurately description the percentage breakage of vetch seeds under impact loading. It was found that the models have provided satisfactory results over the whole set of values for the dependent variable.