Vol. 9 No. 1
Moisture related mechanical properties of drum-roasted cashew nut under compression loading
Author(s): S. K. SWAIN AND J. P. GUPTA
Abstract: Quasi-static compression tests were conducted to study the mechanical behavior of roasted cashew nuts at various moisture contents within the range of 6.75 percent to 13.52 percent and at varying loading rates of 5, 10 and 20 mm min-1. The direction of loading in all experiments under the present investigation was perpendicular to the concave and convex edges i.e. on its longitudinal axis along the natural line of cleavage, which is similar to the orientation followed for shelling in conventional manual hand beating method. The results have shown that under the three rates of loading and four levels of moisture contents the mechanical properties such as force for initial rupture, deformation, energy for rupture and modulus of elasticity followed quadratic relationship with moisture content. The results indicated that the force for rupture, deformation and energy for rupture increased up to the moisture content of 10.20 percent under the three rates of loading but the modulus of elasticity decreased under the similar conditions.
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