Abstract
This research was conducted to test the feasibility of utilizing high-pressure water jets of over 1.0㎫ as a means of breaking and peeling garlic bulbs. High-pressure plunger pumps and flat-spray nozzles of varying orifice diameters and spray angles were utilized to supply water jets into a prototype peeling chamber made of transparent acrylic plates. Water jets were discharged from a total of six nozzles installed in such a way that three parallel nozzles face the other three. The cross-sectional area of the peeling chamber and the installation angle of the nozzles had critical effects on peeling performance. Small cross-sectional area was required so that total impact force of water jets on garlic could be increased. The optimum installation angles were around 4, 8, and 16<TEX>$^{\circ}$</TEX> for the nozzles having 15, 40, and 65<TEX>$^{\circ}$</TEX> spray angles, respectively. Best performance with 61.4% of completely-peeled garlics was obtained at a pressure of 1.94㎫ and a flow rate of 9.07 <TEX>$\ell$</TEX>/min for each nozzle. The peeling efficiency of the system was generally unsatisfactory due to the limited flow rate of the plunger pumps utilized. For better performance, it is recommended to increase flow rate while reducing operating pressure by utilizing other type of pumps.
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