BULK COMPRESSIBILITY BEHAVIOR FOR SELECT CROPS

Knowledge of the pressure-dependent bulk density increase observed in stored grains and oil seeds, commonly referred to as packing or compressibility, is important for maintaining accurate grain inventory, evaluating wall loads, and other applications that require estimating density at specific depths in a bin. This study presents compressibility equation parameters determined utilizing a compilation of the best data available, including previously published and new datasets. In all, confined uniaxial compression tests for nine crops (barley, canola, corn, oats, rice, sorghum, soybeans, hard red winter wheat, and soft red winter wheat) were included. The data was fit using two candidate compressibility equations, both of which generally fit well and resulted in root mean squared errors ranging from 1.7 to 7.1 kg m^-3, depending on the model and crop. For crops with full scale bin data available from previous research, the resulting equations were applied to estimate inventory and were compared with the measured mass of grain in the bin. Results from both equations were similar, and apart from oats, median errors were less than 2.5%.