Purpose To study the physical property and tensile property of fresh corn bracts during the whole harvest period, and to achieve the minimum energy to break the bracts, carry out efficient peeling, and reduce the grain damage rate.
Methods Two kinds of fresh corn, Jinyinhua1918 and Minshuangse No.9, were selecting as the research objects. The tensile tests of fresh corn blades and leaf sheaths at harvest stage were carried out with the parameters of fracture force, tensile strength and fracture energy. The effects of bract water content, bract thickness and tensile load direction on the tensile properties of blades and leaf sheaths were compared and analyzed.
Results One-way factor analysis showed that the tensile properties of blade had a significant effect on fracture force and fracture energy (P<0.01), but the effect on tensile strength was not significant (P>0.05); the average fracture force, tensile strength, and average fracture energy of the longitudinal tensile blade were about 3.91 times, 4.70 times, and 11.20 times of the transverse tensile blade, respectively; the water content of bract had an extremely significant effect on the tensile properties of sheaths (P<0.01), the fracture force and fracture energy of leaf sheath thickness had an extremely significant effect on the tensile properties of leaf sheaths (P<0.01), but had no significant effect on the tensile strength of leaf sheath thickness (P>0.05); the tensile force of sheath was related to the angle between the direction of natural force, and the smaller the angle, the greater the force, the greater the angle, the smaller the force.
Conclusion The mechanical peeling process of the blade is more prone to transverse fracture. Increasing the pulling angle of the bract can reduce the loss of mechanical peeling of the bract, and improve the efficiency and quality of mechanical peeling.
DownLoad: