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For 100 sunflower head, maximum and minimum diameters, thickness, height of the ground, and mass of all seeds on sunflower head (SH) for five conventional varieties were measured. To examine the correlation between maximum SH diameter and minimum SH diameter, SH thickness, SH height from the ground and SH seeds mass, linear regression method was used. Also SH diameter and SH thickness of four sunflower hybrids varieties were measured. Log-normal, Weibull and Generalized extreme value (G.E.V) distribution were used in order to model SH diameter and SH thickness distributions of all varieties and hybrids; also, Kolmogorov-Smirnov methods were used for comparison of all probability density. Results indicated that value of average of dimensions, geometric and arithmetic mean diameter, head height from the ground, and mass of the seeds on each head of Dorsefid and Sirena varieties were more and less than the other varieties, respectively. For all varieties, there was linear correlation between maximum SH diameter and minimum SH diameters, SH thickness and mass of seeds; while there wasn't any correlation between SH height and maximum SH diameter. Results showed that whenever skewness and kurtosis had positive values, Log-normal and G.E.V distribution had good performance and whenever skewness and kurtosis had negative values, Weibull and G.E.V distribution had good performance based on Kolomogrov-Smirnov methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three main dimensions of nut and kernel of almonds were measured. Then some dimensional properties of nut and kernel were calculated. Effect of the moisture content on bulk density, true density, porosity and coefficient of friction of kernels and nuts were studied. Angle of repose on iron, plywood and galvanized sheet were measured. Also in order to examine the correlation between two dimensions of kernels and nuts and correlation between one dimension of nuts and similar dimension of kernels, linear and quadratic regression were used. Length, width and thickness distributions of nuts and kernels were modeled using normal, log normal, Weibull and Generalized Extreme Value distributions. For modeling other dimensional properties, only Generalized Extreme Value was used. The estimated parameters of the PDF for three main dimensions of nuts and kernels indicated that G.E.V was best fit. With increasing moisture content of the kernels from 4.20% to 29.64% (w.b.), true density and porosity were increased from 939.629 to 1,077.428 kg m-3 and 37.704% to 57.088%, respectively; and bulk density was decreased from 585.350 kg m-3 to 462.343 kg m-3 . When the moisture content of the nuts increased from 4.03% to 28.13% (w.b.), true density and porosity were increased from 1,025.124 kg m-3 to 1,149.700 kg m-3 and 38.562% to 56.55%, respectively, and bulk density was decreased from 629.81 kg m-3 to 499.532 kg m-3 . Values of coefficient of friction on all surfaces were increased with increasing moisture content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information on physical properties of virgin olive fruit, especially those grown in Iran,arenot available in literatures. Some physical properties of Mari variety of virgin olive fruits, namely: dimensional properties (length, width, thickness, arithmetic mean diameter, geometric mean diameter, sphericity, volume of the fruit, surface area and projected area), gravimetric properties (unit mass of fruit, 1,000 fruit mass, bulk density, true density and porosity), frictional properties (angle of repose and coefficient of friction), modeling dimensional properties and mass (using normal distribution) were studied. Also sphericity, volume, surface area and projected area were calculated using different theoretical equations. Length, width and thickness of fruits ranged from 18.46 mm to 27.63 mm, 15.80 mm to 21.99 mm and 14.77 mm to 20.33 mm, respectively. Bulk density of fruits increased from 590.78 kg m-3 to 646.51 kg m-3 as the volume container increased from 500 mL to 2,000 mL and true density of 1,059.14 kg m-3 were obtained. The highest value forangle of repose and coefficient of friction amongplywood, rubber, iron and galvanized surfaceswererecorded for iron surface and the lowest value was recorded for galvanized surface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For designing the dehulling, separating, threshing, sizing and planting machines for sunflower, physical and mechanical properties of sunflower seeds should be known. In this work some physical properties of three varieties of sunflower seeds, distance between the adjacent seeds on the sunflower head (SH), length, width, thickness, mass of the individual seeds, 1000- seeds mass, and changing these parameters with location of seeds on SH were measured. Then shape properties, including geometric mean diameter, sphericity, surface area, projected area and volume of the seeds were calculated. Variations of the shape properties of the seeds on the SH were studied. Statistical indices for dimensional and shape parameters were calculated. For Mikhi, Sirena, and Songhori varieties, true and bulk densities, porosity, angle of repose on wood and galvanized surfaces were calculated by using standard methods in the moisture of 9.15, 5.26 and 5.62% (w.b.), respectively. The distribution of distance between adjacent seeds on SH was modeled by using three continuous statistical distributions namely Normal, two-parameter Log-normal and two-parameter Weibull distribution. Size and mass of seeds were modeled with two-parameter Weibull distribution. The parameters of the probability density functions (PDF) were estimated, then evaluated, and the predictive performances of the models were compared. Log likelihood goodness of fit test was used to test how well different PDFs work for prediction of the distance between seeds on sunflower head, size and mass of seeds. The results for three varieties showed that when the distance between locations of the seed from center of the sunflower head increased, size, shape properties and mass of seed, increased, too. The values of true and bulk density, porosity and angle of repose on wood and galvanized surfaces for Mikhi variety were 497.500 kg/m³, 331.027 kg/m³, 33.46%, 25.08° and 22.23°, for Sirena were 580.368 kg/m³, 422.015 kg/m³, 27.28%, 26.80° and 23.86°, and for Songhori were 471.746 kg/m³, 319.346 kg/m³, 32.30%, 24.39° and 21.70° respectively. Modeling result for the distance between adjacent seeds on SH showed that, Log-normal distribution model fits the empirical probability density well and two-parameter Weibull distribution had worst performance for prediction. Also modeling result for the distance between adjacent seeds on showed that whenever Skewness and Kurtosis had negative value, Weibull distribution was best fit. Statistical analyses for dimensional properties and mass showed that in most cases, both Skewness and Kurtosis had negative values. Therefor for modeling dimensional properties and mass, Weibull distribution was used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To design a sunflower machine for removing seeds from sunflower head (SH) based on air-jet impingement, preliminarily model of such machine was designed, constructed and evaluated. Effects of the seed location, angle of impingement, distance between nozzle outlet and sunflower head, and rotational velocity of sunflower head on percentage of extracted seeds were examined. In order to examine the effects of air-jet parameters on percentage of removed seeds in different locations of seed on sunflower head, sunflower heads were divided into three regions, namely central region, middle region and side region. Results indicated that in all three regions, with increasing rotational velocity from 10 to 30 rev/min, percentages of removed seeds from the SH decreased. Results also indicated that in all three regions, with increasing distance between nozzle outlet and SH surface from 10 to 20 mm and decreasing distance between nozzle outlet and SH surface from 40 to 20 mm, percentage of removed seeds from the SH by air-jet increased. Results indicated that in side region, with decreasing angle of impingement from 90% to 30%, of removed seeds from the SH by air-jet increased and in middle and central regions, with increasing angle of impingement from 30° to 60° and decreasing angle of impingement from 90° to 60°, percentages of removed seeds from the SH by air-jet increased. Also in all tests, no seed damaged due to air-jet impinging was observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the success of air-jet application in food and agricultural sciences, a new method was invented based on the impingement jets to eliminate some problems presented in mechanical methods of removing sunflower seeds from the head. When the sunflower head had linear velocity and the nozzle was fixed, the effects of the seeds’ location on the sunflower head, reservoir pressure, nozzle diameter, linear velocity of the sunflower head, and the distance between the nozzle outlet and the surface of the sunflower head on its removed area were examined. The regions removed by the impingement of the air-jet were photographed, and the area of the removed regions was calculated based on the image processing technique. The results showed that the area of the removed region increased with increasing the nozzle diameter, reservoir pressure, and distance between the nozzle outlet and sunflower head; also, the area of the removed region increased with decreasing the linear velocity of the sunflower head. The maximum value of the area of the removed region in all regions was obtained when the linear velocity, nozzle diameter, reservoir pressure, and distance between nozzle outlet and sunflower head were equal to 1 cm sec-1, 8 mm, 800 kPa, and 30 mm, respectively. The minimum value of the area of the removed region in all regions was obtained when the linear velocity, nozzle diameter, reservoir pressure, and distance between nozzle outlet and sunflower head were equal to 3 cm sec-1, 4 mm, 600 kPa, and 10 mm, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]