Mechanical test suitable for detection of bug-damagewheat grains abstract

摘要

Considering the fact that the presence of bug-damaged wheat in the bulk results in a decrease of the flour quality andits final product, which is bread, it is necessary to differentiate the bug-damaged wheat grains from the healthy ones.Therefore, the present study investigated the mechanical properties of bug-damaged and healthy wheat grains of theAzar cultivar. By making use of these mechanical properties, it would be possible to provide a more precise textureidentification of the bug-damaged wheat grains compared to the healthy ones. In this study, the mechanical properties(rupture energy, toughness and apparent elastic coefficient) were determined under compressive loading, with fourlevels of loading velocity (5, 15, 25 and 35 mm.min–1) and four levels of moisture content (9, 11.5, 14 and 16.5% wetbasis) in both bug-damaged and healthy wheat grains. Due to the significant difference in the mean value of apparentelastic coefficient between the bug-damaged grains (74.779 MPa) and the healthy ones (289.071 MPa), this parametercan be employed as the most appropriate factor to distinguish the bug-damaged wheat grains from the healthy ones.