Engineering properties of spikelets and true seeds of deenanath (Pennisetum pedicellatum Trin.) grass

Abstract

Various engineering properties of spikelets and true seeds of deenanath grass were investigated at five levels of moisture content. As the moisture content increased from 6.88 to 19.23%, the length, width, thickness, arithmetic mean diameter, geometric mean diameter, aspect ratio, sphericity, surface area, volume, thousands seed mass and bulk density of deenanath grass spikelets varied from 5.84 to 6.56 mm, 2.53 to 2.96 mm, 1.66 to 1.91 mm, 3.34 to 3.81 mm, 2.88 to 3.25 mm, 44.98 to 46.54%, 49.68 to 50.65%, 25.44 to 33.98 mm2 , 7.95 to 12.00 mm3 , 0.512 to 0.701 g and 8.32 to 6.92 kgm-3, respectively. Furthermore, in case of true seeds of deenanath grass, these values varied from 2.30 to 2.56 mm, 0.71 to 0.96 mm, 0.47 to 0.63 mm, 1.16 to 1.38 mm, 0.90 to 1.15 mm, 30.91 to 37.51%, 39.31 to 45.12%, 2.58 to 3.23 mm2 , 3.71 to 4.97 mm3 , 0.480 to 0.523 g and 652.16 to 585.78 kgm-3 , respectively in the experimental range of moisture content. The true density and porosity values of deenanath grass true seeds were found to decrease from 852.63 to 792.71 kgm-3 and 25.62 to 24.97%, respectively with the increase in moisture content. The above engineering properties of both spikelets and true seeds of deenanath grass established simple linear relationships with moisture content with correlation coefficients of more than 0.90.