Mathematical Models for Predicting the Terminal Velocity of Chickpea, Rice and Lentil

Terminal velocity of chickpea, rice and lentil seeds has been experimentally measured by suspending the seeds in an air stream. In order to assessment the effects of seed size and moisture content on terminal velocity a completely randomized design in factorial experiment was carried out. The results showed that size and moisture content have significant effects (p<0.01) on terminal velocityin each three crops. Terminal velocity of chickpea,rice and lentil seeds varied within the 11.13 15.08, 4.25 5.01 and 5.08 6.41 m/s, respectively. In this research the shape of chickpea, rice and lentil respectively were assumed to be spherical, cylindrical and flat and on the basis of this, the mathematical models for predicting the terminal velocity were obtained. The coefficient of determination (R ) for chickpea, rice and lentil were respectively 0.977, 0.922 and 0.895. Also the 2 root mean square error (RMSE) for chickpea, rice and lentil were 0.05, 0.087 and 0.097 respectively.