Effect of Rice Cultivar, Type, Form, and Moisture Content on the Angle of Repose
Abstract.The angle of repose (AoR) is a primary characteristic determining the flowablity of grains and thus is an important property for designing rice handling and storage facilities. The aim of this study was to evaluate the AoR of contemporary rice cultivars grown in the United States. An apparatus was constructed to measure both the emptying and piling AoR of rice samples. The effect of rice cultivars (pureline and hybrid), rice types (long-, medium-, and short-grain rice), rice forms (rough, brown, head, and broken milled rice), and moisture content on the AoR of rice were evaluated. Results indicated that all of these factors significantly affected the AoR of rice. The piling AoR was significantly less than the emptying AoR. Hybrid rice cultivars tended to have greater AoR than purelines, which was attributed to the pubescence characteristic of their hulls. The emptying AoR and piling AoR of tested long-grain rough rice cultivars at 12% to 21% moisture content were in the range of 32.7° to 39.7° and 29.6° to 36.9°, respectively.Increasing the moisture content of long-grain rough rice led to greater AoR, possibly due to increased cohesion of rice kernels. Long-grain rough rice cultivars had slightly lesser AoR than those of medium- and short-grain rice cultivars. Among all tested rice forms, brown rice had the least AoR. Head and broken milled rice had approximately the same AoR as rough rice. Keywords: Angle of repose, Bridging, Flowablity, Friction, Rice.