Breakage Susceptibility of Rice Grains by Impact Loading

Abstract

The effects of three varieties (Hashemi, Deylaman, and Alikazemi), three drying temperatures (30C, 45C, and 60C), and three kinetic energy levels (10, 23, and 37 mJ) in 10 replications were investigated on the mechanical resistance of brown rice kernel of batch type artificial drying. In addition, the effect of natural air-drying with 25C in the same treatments was separately analyzed. Results showed that the effects of variety and kinetic energy on the breakage susceptibility of artificially dried rice grains were significant at 1% confidence level, but no significant effects were observed at different drying temperatures (CRD analyses with Duncan 5% for means). With increasing kinetic energy, the average value of BSI increased. Maximum and minimum average values of BSI for 37 and 10 mJ of kinetic energy levels and for Deylaman and Alikazemi varieties were obtained to be 2.35% and 1.01%, respectively. Artificial drying increased the rate of breakage susceptibility by up to 60%, so optimizing dryer temperature is very important. The sound brown rice grains became stronger in natural drying, as the drying duration increased in low drying temperature.