Mechanical test suitable for detection of bug-damage wheat grains abstract

Abstract

Considering the fact that the presence of bug-damaged wheat in the bulk results in a decrease of the flour quality and its final product, which is bread, it is necessary to differentiate the bug-damaged wheat grains from the healthy ones. Therefore, the present study investigated the mechanical properties of bug-damaged and healthy wheat grains of the Azar cultivar. By making use of these mechanical properties, it would be possible to provide a more precise texture identification of the bug-damaged wheat grains compared to the healthy ones. In this study, the mechanical properties (rupture energy, toughness and apparent elastic coefficient) were determined under compressive loading, with four levels of loading velocity (5, 15, 25 and 35 mm.min-1) and four levels of moisture content (9, 11.5, 14 and 16.5% wet basis) in both bug-damaged and healthy wheat grains. Due to the significant difference in the mean value of apparent elastic coefficient between the bug-damaged grains (74.779 MPa) and the healthy ones (289.071 MPa), this parameter can be employed as the most appropriate factor to distinguish the bug-damaged wheat grains from the healthy ones.

Keywords

• mechanical properties
• wheat
• bug-damaged
• apparent elastic coefficient
• toughness