Effects of moisture content and level in the crop on the bending characteristics of chickpea stem

Abstract

This study was conducted with the aim to evaluate the effects of moisture content and stem region on the some physical properties and bending characteristics of chickpea stems including bending stress and Young’s modulus of chickpea stems. The experiments were conducted at four moisture contents of 10%, 15%, 20% and 25% wet basis and at the bottom, middle and top regions of stem. The bending forces were measured at different moisture contents and the bending stress and the Young’s modulus were calculated from these data. Based on the results obtained, the values of the stem physical properties increased with increasing moisture content. Their values also increased towards the bottom region. The bending stress and Young modulus in bending decreased with increase in the moisture content and increased towards the top regions. The average bending stress was obtained as 28.76 MPa varying from 39.20 to 17.07 MPa, while the average Young’s modulus was calculated as 494.48 MPa ranging from 694.75 to 302.54 MPa.