An Investigation on the Effect of Moisture Content on the Engineering Properties of Cotton Seed for Pneumatic Planter Design

Aim: The aim of this investigation was to analyze the physical, gravimetric, frictional, aerodynamic, and mechanical characteristics of cotton seeds at three different moisture content levels, ranging from 8% to 14% on a dry basis to develop a power tiller-operated pneumatic planter.

Study Design: Completely Randomized Design and Tukey pairwise test in done on the SAS On Demand for Academic platform was used for the study.

Place and Duration of Study: Department of Farm Machinery and Power Engineering (FMPE), Department of Agricultural Processing and Food Engineering (APFE) and Department of Agricultural Structures Civil and Environmental Engineering (ASCEE), College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology (CAET), Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT), between July 2022 and August 2022.

Methodology: This study was conducted to determine the engineering properties of cotton seeds namely BS–279, RCH–659 and KCHH–2739 as a function of moisture content. The different properties of these cotton seeds were studied in the engineering property laboratory and UTM laboratory of the CAET, OUAT, Bhubaneswar. The objective of this study was to investigate some moisture-dependent physical, gravimetric, frictional, aerodynamic, and mechanical properties of cotton seeds. The aim of this investigation was to analyze the physical, gravimetric, frictional, aerodynamic, and mechanical characteristics of cotton seeds at three different moisture content levels, ranging from 8% to 14% on a dry basis. These moisture content levels were referred to as M1 (8-10%), M2 (10-12%), and M3 (12-14%).

Results: The geometric mean diameter, sphericity, aspect ratio, thousand seed weight, angle of repose and terminal velocity were found to be in the range of 5.05–6.57 mm, 60–67%, 0.51–0.59,78.70–103.67 g, 39.75–44.75˚ and 9.26–13.28 ms-1 respectively as moisture content of seed increased from 8 to 14% dry basis. The mean diameter, volume, porosity, terminal velocity and coefficient of friction showed a positive correlation with the moisture content. The bulk density, true density and porosity of seed decreased from initial range of 637.82–696.12 to 524.12–607.60 kgm-3, 1155.00–1266.12 to 868.28–1007.60 kgm-3 and 43.23–44.96 to 39.75–41.55% respectively with an increase in moisture content. Rupture force was found to be negatively correlated with moisture content and loading rate.

Conclusion: The effect of moisture content on all dependent parameters was found to be significant (α=0.05) under Tukey pair wise test but these were non-significant for the varieties of cotton seeds considered under the study. These engineering properties can be considered while designing of planters and other sowing machinery, harvesters, ginning, and oil extraction machines of cotton seed.