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Cottonseed Shear Strength as Affected by Moisture Content
Abstract
Cotton gins struggle to process cotton when the cotton is excessively moist. Cotton gins must slow down processing rate and increase dryer temperatures to gin cotton with high moisture contents. The slowdown in the ginning process and increase in fuel use for the dryers results in high ginning costs. The increased moisture content in modules also causes a decrease in fiber and cottonseed quality. The decrease in ginning efficiency has been linked to the internal moisture content of the cottonseed; however, there is limited research done on how cottonseed with increased internal moisture contents affects ginning.
Cottonseed becomes very soft when it reaches and stays at high internal moisture contents resulting in seed fragments in the final cotton lint and seed clogging the gin stands. While the seed only becomes very soft at high internal moisture levels, a decrease in structural integrity of the cottonseed caused by any increase in internal moisture content of the cottonseed could be the cause of the decrease in ginning efficiency when ginning moist cotton. The goal of this research is to determine the relationship between the internal moisture content of cottonseed and cottonseed structural integrity determined by maximum shear stress.
Cottonseed samples of four different cotton cultivars and two seed surface conditions (fuzzy and delinted) were stored in sealed plastic containers with four different relative humidities for two weeks to reach equilibrium. 52 individual cottonseeds from each sample were sheared using a double shear device, and the maximum shear stress was calculated. In total 1664 cottonseeds were sheared. An analysis of variance was run to determine if internal moisture content, cotton cultivar, seed surface condition, or their interactions affected the maximum shear stress. The relationship between the cottonseed internal moisture content and the cottonseed maximum shear stress was evaluated.
The results of this research indicate there is an inverse relationship between the cottonseed internal moisture content and the maximum shear stress. The main effects showed no interactions with each other. The seed surface condition also significantly impacted the maximum shear stress while the cotton cultivar did not significantly impact the maximum shear stress.
Citation
Riehl, Caleb (2022). Cottonseed Shear Strength as Affected by Moisture Content. Master's thesis, Texas A&M University. Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /197407.