Stochastic modelling of grain drying: Part 1. Experimental investigation

Previous research has shown that the variance in the moisture content of individual maize kernels is significant at harvest. In this series of three papers, the stochastic nature of the moisture content of maize before and after drying is explored. Part 1 presents experimental data of the distribution of moisture content of maize kernels in samples taken at harvest time, after thin-layer drying, and after crossflow drying. The moisture content in recently harvested and in thin-layer dried maize appears to be normally distributed and in crossflow-dried maize to be skewed. In Part 2, stochastic models are developed of the distribution of moisture content of maize kernels dried in concurrent-flow, counter-flow and crossflow dryers, and in Part 3 one of the models is used to analyse the process of grain drying in a crossflow dryer.