Studies on physical properties of pearl millet grains

Abstract

The perception on the physical properties was helpful in developing food processing machines and equipment for processing, packaging, and storage. Size, geometric mean diameter, sphericity, aspect ratio, bulk density, true density, porosity, thousand seed weight, angle of repose, coefficient of static friction are some engineering attributes that are vital in manufacturing of an equipment were investigated in the present study. The grain length varied from 3.39 to 4.79 mm, with a breadth of 2.22 to 2.79 mm and a thickness of 2.02 to mm. The 1000 grain weight ranges from 14.0 to 15.3 g, an angle of repose of 31.5 to 35.5⁰, The average coefficient of friction values was 0.38 & 0.36 in plastic, 0.40 & 0.40 in glass, 0.42 & 0.46 in mild steel sheet, 0.47 & 0.45 in fibre, and 0.51 & 0.53 in plywood and a bulk density of 577.63 to 565.16 kgm-3, with a true density of 551 to 554 kgm-3 varieties were respectively.