Abstract
Experimental work of grain bin was carried out to develop the methods of natural air in-bin drying and storage. The method is considered to be more economical, labour saving, and an effective countermeasure to grain loss. To examine the possibility of farm use of the grain bin and to analyze the related factors concerned with in-bin grain drying and storage, ambient air conditions (especially the change of air temperature and relative humidity) and grain quality during drying and storage periods were investigated. A laboratory model bin was constructed to investigate the effect of different forced air conditions on the drying characteristics of rice. In addition, a grain bin with 2.2m diameter and 1.8m height, considered to be the optimum size for the average Korean farm, was constructed and tested to examine the drying and storing characteristics of rice. The weather data analyzed in this study was the nine-year (from 1964 to 1972) record of air temperature and relative humidity in the Suweon area, and the thirty-year (from 1931 to 1960) record of pentad normal relative humidity and air temperature in the Seoul area. From the results of the weather data analyses, the adequate air delivery hours (which was arbitrary defined as the condition to give less than 75% relative humidity) to dry the rice during October were about nine hours (from approximately 10 A.M. to 7 P.M, ) a day, in which the average air temperature was about 15.9$^{\circ}C$ and average relative humidity was 66%. The occurence of days having three hours of such conditions was 1, 2, and 1-day within the 1st, 2nd add last 10-day periods for the month of October, respectively. Therefore, it may be considered that the weather condition in October was satisfactory for the forced natural air drying. The results of the laboratory model bin test were analyzed to obtain the drying curve and drying rate for different drying stages and grain layers in the bin corresponding to various conditions of forced natural air. A drying experiment with a prototype grain bin showed that an approximate 5 percent grain moisture gradient through a 1.6 meter grain deposit was observed after 80 hours of intermittent drying, giving an over dried zone in the lower grain layers and an extremely high grain moisture zone in the upper layers. This indicates that an effective measure should be taken to reduce this high moisture gradient. In order to investigate the drying characteristics of bulk grain in a layerturning operation a grain bin test was performed. This showed a significant improvement of uniform drying. In this test, approximate 107 hours were required to dry a depth of 1.6 meter of grain from an initial moisture content of 22.2 percent to a moisture content of 16.7 percent using an air delivery rate of 2.8 cubic meter per a minute per every cubic meter of grain. This resulted in a 2 percent moisture gradient from the top to the bottom of the bin. During storage period, till the end of June the average temperature of grain was 2~3$^{\circ}C$ higher than ambient air temperature. But during July when the grain moisture content went up slightly (less than 1 percent), the average temperature of the grain also increased to 3~5$^{\circ}C$ higher than ambient air temperature. It is therefore recommended that for safe grain storage, grain should not be stored in sheet metal bins after mid May. From the above results, in-bin rice drying and storage can be used effectively on Korean farms. It is strongly recommended that the use of grain-bin system should be implemented for farm use to improve farm drying and storage of rice.