A study of the possibility of separating of unhulled rice (paddy) and brown rice by winnowing was carried out, in which the aerodynamic properties, such as terminal velocity, the flying distance and the distribution of grains were investigated and the limit of winnowing was considered.
The main results were as follows:
1. The terminal velocity of grains which was measured by floating a grain in the ascending air current was 5.8m/s for a meaty paddy of 30mg and 6.7m/s for brown rice of 25mg, respectively. The relations among the terminal velocity
Vt(m/s), the weight
G(mg) and the projection area
A(mm
2) of a grain were as follows;
Paddy;
Vt=4.8(
G/
A)
1/2-0.08
Brown rice;
Vt=5.3(
G/
A)
1/2-0.92
All of paddy and light unmatured brown rice under 18mg floated in the ascending air current of 6m/s.
2. The drag coefficient and the terminal velocity of grains varied with the flying posture, and they were maximum when flew in the direction of Z and X axis of grain respectively, as shown in Table 4. As the terminal velocity in free posture almost coincided with that of grain flying in the direction of Z axis, it seems that most grains float and ascend holding the same posture in the air.
3. The equivalent diameter of spheres calculated from the terminal velocity were 1.47mm for a paddy of 30mg and 1.56mm for a brown rice of 25mg, and those values were 0.65-0.75 times of grain thickness
LZ.
4. The flying distance and the standard deviation of distribution of grains in the horizontal air current are about in proportion to the second power of the air velocity, and the changing rate according to the increase of the velocity was somewhat larger in the latter than the former.
5. The measured value of the flying distance coincided nearly with the calculated one. From this fact, it seems that grains fly holding the postures of Y or Z axis in the direction to the horizontal air current.
6. To show the degree of grain separation by horizontal air current, the wind separating ratio
RS was defined as follows;
RS=
l1-
l2/
S1+
S2where
l1,
l2; the average flying distance of paddy and brown rice
S1,
S2; the standard deviation of distribution of paddy and brown rice
The value of
RS increased with the height of the air outlet of the experimental apparatus. In the case the heights were 10-12cm,
RS took the largest value near the terminal velocity of paddy and brown rice.
7. In this experiment by the horizontal air current, the value of
RS was 0.3-0.45, and 20% of paddy fell within the average flying distance of brown rice. Therefore, if the material contains 5% of paddy initially, more than 2% of paddy will be in brown rice after winnowing. From these results, it seems to be very difficult to separate paddy and brown rice more strictly only by winnowing.
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