Recently, the quality of grain that comes for processing has deteriorated. This is due to a decrease in the requirements for its quality. The most characteristic example is a grain of barley with pronounced anisotropy of properties and heterogeneity of structure. The feature of processing barley grain is its separation into fractions by size before further processing. The study of the mechanical properties of these fractions is relevant. (Research purpose) The research purpose is in studying experimentally the mechanical properties of barley grain using publicly available techniques and equipment. (Materials and methods) For the experiments, there were used fractions of barley grain divided by size before processing according to the known technology, collected in the flat part of the Belgorod Region of the Central Federal District of the Russian Federation in August 2020 and meeting the requirements of standards. Samples that have passed the stage of temperature treatment were selected for the study. (Results and discussion) The article presents the study of the mechanical properties of barley grains of three fractions by size after storage. The results of the research showed that the strength of barley grain having a moisture content of 14.3 percent, when tested for compression is 20 megapascals and does not depend on the grain size, and the grain itself has anisotropy. The hardness of the barley grain decreases with increasing grain size. (Conclusions) Deformation at the highest destructive compression stress does not depend on the grain size, but has a 1.6 times greater value under vertical loading than under horizontal. Studies have shown that it is possible to determine the mechanical properties of grain crops using standard techniques on modern universal testing facilities that allow measurements to be carried out with high accuracy.
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