INFLUENCE OF INVERSE PULSATION ON THE CRUSHED MAIZE FLOW RATE FROM HOPPERS

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Assoc. Prof., Ag. Eng. Dept., Fac. of Ag., Mansoura U., Mansoura, Egypt.

2 Head of Res., Ag. Bioengineering Systems Res. Dept., Ag. Eng. Res. Inst., ARC., Egypt.

3 Grad. Stud., Ag. Eng. Dept., Fac. of Ag., Mansoura U., Mansoura, Egypt.

4 Prof., Ag. Eng. Dept., Fac. of Ag., Mansoura U., Mansoura, Egypt.

Abstract

This research aims to add an inverse pulsation technique inside the hopper that speeds up the crushed grain flow and moves the stagnant fodder caused by rat-holing and arching. In the experimental lab, the hopper constructs a funnel flow system by regulating the inner inclined angle of 30° with the horizontal hopper surface. While crushed maize is discharged from the hopper, the air chamber makes a continuous cycle of constriction and expansion causing an inverse pulsation that forces the materials towards the hopper outlet. The pressure of the compressed air is controlled by a pressure gauge and the time of filling in and deflation of the air that is settled by an electronically programming code using an Arduino Uno unit. The levels of studied variables include diameter of outlet orifices "Do" (40; 45; and 50 mm), pressure of elastic air chamber "PAC" (2.0; 2.5 and 3.0 bar) per each pressure times of filling in and deflation ratio "TFD" (0.5; 0.6 and 0.7), for six batch number pulsation "NP" (1.0; 2.0; 3.0; 4.0; 5.0 and 6.0). The results cleared that the air chamber pulsation technique can improve the flow from the funnel hopper by about 51.69, 53.69 and 50.31% % at outlet orifices diameters of 40, 45 and 50 mm respectively compared to the free flow as a control unit. 

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

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