Studies from Kansas State University Reveal New Findings on Agricultural Engineering

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Agriculture Week -- Investigators publish new report on Agricultural Engineering. According to news reporting from Manhattan, Kansas, by VerticalNews journalists, research stated, "Commercial systems are currently available to measure grain moisture during storage using relative humidity (RH) and temperature (T) sensors and equilibrium moisture (EMC) models. However, the variability of the EMC relationships between grain lots necessitates that a good model be selected or developed for each specific grain."

The news correspondents obtained a quote from the research from Kansas State University, "The objective of this research was to develop modified Chung-Pfost equilibrium moisture models for seven corn samples, examine their prediction accuracy, and evaluate simplification of the experimental procedures used to develop these models. The models that were developed used corn conditioned over a broad range of five moisture levels (5-point models). Models were also developed using a reduced number of levels with a narrower moisture range; models with 4 and 2 moisture levels (4- and 2-point models, respectively). The 4-point model used all data except the highest moisture level while the 2-point model used the extreme moisture levels of the 4-point model. The 5-point models had the highest standard error of estimates (SEE) averaging 0.90 and 0.82 for adsorption and desorption, respectively. The 2-point model was used to predict all of the moisture levels of the 4-point data; the standard errors of prediction (SEP) for these predictions averaged 0.41 and 0.39 for adsorption and desorption, respectively, and are only marginally higher than 4-point models. These results show that a 2-point model can be used for accurate moisture measurement across a range common for stored corn, while reducing the amount of work required for model development."

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: "The moisture levels suitable for a 2-point model should be limited to upper and lower moisture contents corresponding to 85% to <90% relative humidity and 35% to 50% relative humidity, respectively."

For more information on this research see: Development Of Equilibrium Moisture Relationships For Storage Moisture Monitoring Of Corn. Applied Engineering in Agriculture, 2012;28(5):677-683. Applied Engineering in Agriculture can be contacted at: Amer Soc Agricultural & Biological Engineers, 2950 Niles Rd, St Joseph, MI 49085-9659, USA.

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting P.R. Armstrong, Kansas State University, Dept. of Grain Sci & Ind, Manhattan, KS 66506, United States.

Keywords for this news article include: Kansas, Manhattan, United States, Agricultural Engineering, North and Central America

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