Abstract
An experimental work was conducted by using a laboratory-made model dryer to investigate the effect of the rate of natural forced-air on the drying rate of rough rice which was deposited in the deep-bed. The dryer consisted of 8 cylinderical containers with grain holding screen at their bottoms, each of which having 30cm in diameter and 15cm in height. The containers were sacked vertically with keeping them air-tight by using paper tape during dryer operation. Two separate layers of containers were operated in the same time to have two replications. The moisture contents of grains within each bins after predetermined period of dryer operation were determined indirectly by measuring the weight of the individual containers. The air-rates were maintained at 6 levels, or 5, 8, 10, 15, 18 and 20 millimenters of static head of water. The roomair conditions during dryer operation were maintained in the range of 10-l5$^{\circ}C$ in temperature and 40-60% in relative humidity. The results of the study are summarized as follows: 1. Drying characteristics of the grains in the bottom layers were approximately the same regardless of airdelivery rates, giving the average drying rate as about 0.35 percent per hour after 40-hour drying period, during which moisture content (w. b.) reduced from 24 percent to about 10 percent. 2. After about 40-hour drying period, the mean drying rates increased from 0.163 percent per hour to 0.263 percent per hour as air-flow rates increased from 5mm to 87.16mm of static head of water. In the same time, the moisture differences of grains between lower and upper layers varied from 12.7 percent at the air rate of 5mm of water head to 7.5 percent at the air-flow rate of 20mn of water head. Thus, the greater the air-flow rate was, the more overall improvement in drying performance was. Additionally, from the result of ineffectiveness of drying grain positioned at 70cm depth or above by the air rate of 5mm of static head of water it may be suggested in practical application that the height of grain deposit would be maintained adequately within the limits of air-rates that may be actually delivered. 3. Drying after layer-turning operation was continued for about 30 hours to test the effectiveness of reducing moisture differences in the thick layers. As a result of this layer-turning operation, moisture distribution through layers approached to narrow ranges, giving the moisture range as about 7 percent at air-flow rate of 5mm head of water, about 3 percent at 10mm head about 2 percent at 15mm head, and less than 1 percent at 20mm head. In addition, from the desirable results that drying rate was rapid in the lower layers and dully in the upper layers, layer-turning operation may be very effective in natural air drying with deep-layer grain deposit, especially when the forced air was kept in low rate. 4. Even though the high rate of air delivery is very desirable for deep-layer natural-air drying of rough rice, it can be happened that the required air delivery rate could not be attained because of limitation of power source available on farms. To give a guide line for the practical application, the power required to perform the drying with the specified air rate was analyzed for different sizes of drying bin and is given in Table (5). If a farmer selects a motor of which size is 1 or {{{{1 { 1} over {2 } }}}} H.P. and air-delivery rate which ranges from 8~10mm of head, the diameter of grain bin may be suggested to choose about 2.4m, also power tiller or other moderate size of prime motor may be recommended when the diameter of grain bin is about 5.0m or more for about 120cm grain deposit.
