91C-33 |
Development of a computer prediction system for in-bin rice drying and aeration |
C. JIA1, W. W. Yang, T. J. Siebenmorgen, and Q. Liu4. (1) Department of Food Science, University of Arkansas, 2650 N. Young Ave., Fayetteville, AR 72704, (2) The GSI Group, P.O. Box 20, 1004 East Illinois Street, Assumption, IL 62510 In-bin drying or aeration is still by far a major mode of handling rice among rice growers despite other drying techniques of choice. In Arkansas, over 60% rice is bin dried or aerated. Since bin drying takes place in a finite depth of grain, temperature and moisture content often vary at different locations in the bed, which could cause quality degradation during subsequent handling and storage. The objective of this study was to develop interactive computer prediction software for in-bin drying or aeration to help rice producers manage drying and aeration operations. The basic simulation approach was to divide a grain bed into many thin layers and calculate the changes in grain moisture content and temperature at preset time intervals. Visual Basic was used to develop codes to carry out the above calculations under Windows 95/98/2000 platform. Experiments of deep-bed drying (at 40, 50 and 60 deg. C) and ambient aeration were conducted with initial rice moisture content of 18~20%, and the results were used to validate the simulation results. Visual Basic based computer software with interactive, user-friendly interfaces and graphic/text outputs has been developed, which enabled users to easily and instantly visualize how moisture and temperature changed during in-bin drying and aeration of rice with or without stirring. The results showed that the changes of grain moisture content and temperature in the rice bed could be predicated reasonably well using the layer-by-layer approach. It was found that the temperature and relative humidity of drying air, the depth of drying bed, and the airflow rate greatly affected grain moisture content distribution inside the rice bed. Some grain at the bottom might be over-dried. A computer prediction system has been developed to aid rice growers in managing their drying and aeration of rice during rice harvesting.
Session 91C, Food Engineering: Food process engineering
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