Abstract
Mechanical properties of agricultural materials are essential for the proper design and fabrication of harvesting, handling, and processing equipment/machineries. In this research, some compressive resistance (force, energy and deformation at rupture point) of two groundnut (SAMNUT 10 and SAMNUT 11) kernels were investigated in terms of kernel sizes. During the test, the groundnut kernels were loaded quasi-statically in the axial orientation at a compressive loading rate of 20 mm/min, using the Universal Testing Machine. Results obtained from the test showed that kernel size and groundnut variety had significant (P ≤0.05) effect on all the mechanical parameters studied. The force required for initiating the kernel rupture increased from 37.21 to 76.10 N for SAMNUT 10; and 30.10 to 64.19 N for SAMNUT 11, as the kernels size increased from small to large size. In addition, the energy absorbed by the kernel at rupture point increased from 0.021 to 0.054 Nm for SAMNUT 10; and 0.016 to 0.044 Nm for SAMNUT 11, for the small and large kernel sizes respectively. Furthermore, the results showed that SAMNUT 10 kernels had slightly higher compressive resistance values than the SAMNUT 11 kernels. Data obtained from this research will help to design and fabricate equipment used in handling and processing of groundnut kernels.