International Journal of Agronomy and Plant Production. Vol.

, 4 (8), 1997-2003, 2013

Available online at http:// www.ijappjournal.com
ISSN 2051-1914 2013 VictorQuest Publications

Grain Flow from Different Discharge Gates in a Grain Seeder

1

Davood Kalantari , Ali Hasanzadeh Tolouti

1- Assist. Prof. in Dep. of Mechanics of Agr. Machinery Engineering, Sari Agricultural and Natural Resources
University (SANRU), sari, Iran.
2- M.Sc. Student of Mechanics of Agr. Machinery, Department of Agricultural Machinery, Sari Agricultural and
Natural Resources University (SANRU), sari, Iran.
*Corresponding Author: Davood Kalantari
Abstract
An analytical and experimental study is performed in this paper for evaluation of discharge rate
of grain flow from different discharge gate of a grain seeder. Three different apertures (circular,
rectangular and square shape with the same area) have been considered in this study. Based on
the experimental and theoretical results obtained in this study, it is shown that the discharge
rate of the circular aperture is the maximum. In contrast, the squared aperture has a minimum
discharge rate. It is also found that with increasing the grain height in the tank, the discharge
rate does not change significantly. Regarding the non-uniform and oscillating discharge from a
squared aperture, it is not recommended to use for discharging grain materials from a reservoir,
grain drills or silos and storage tanks.
Keywords: grain, aperture, grain seeder, discharge rate, tank.
Introduction
Approximately 65-70 percent of carbohydrates, proteins, and also many vitamins of B class, mineral
materials and infrequent components of Iranians regimes are supplied through the cereals and their products,
(Rajabzadeh, 1997). This report indicates the importance of academic researches on grain production and
also grain drills. Senapativ et al (1992) compared 5 kinds of grain drills (Hashtjin, 2004). In their research, 11
factors were considered as comparative criterions in grain drills. These factors include: necessary force for
moving grain drills, farm efficiency, farm capacity, the uniformity of seed distribution, plant density per hectare,
operation costs per hectare, planting depth, capacity of alignment the space between rows, the number of
workers required to use grain drills, crop yield, possibility of simultaneous seed and fertilizer distribution in the
field. After evaluation of these factors and through consideration of the effect of each factor on grain drills
efficiency, the function of overall result of each grain drills was calculated and all of these results were
compared. Final results showed that combined drills (grain drills with seed and fertilizer tank) had the best
performance and is the most appropriate grain drills for Asian-India region.
Feeding devices of grain drills usually lie in the bottom of the tank. The location of apertures is different in
the tank (Mohsenin, 1986). In order to prevent arching in front of the hole due to internal friction between
seeds, some mixers have been installed inside the seed tank, (Hashtjin, 2004), and (Enstad, 1981).
Installation of the mixer inside the tank reduces the bulk density of grain and increases the flow ability of
grains. Continuous and uniform discharge of seed mass through the hole is a necessary condition for
consistent distribution of seed, (Heege, 1993). However due to the differences between the forms, size and
weight of grains among types of seeds and between their varieties, discharging process in grain drills has
become a complex issue, (Jenike, 1970), (Enstad, 1981), (Walters, 1973).
Regarding increasing importance of mechanization of grain farming in our country and due to the exact
determination of optimum planting rates per unit area, it is necessary to measure and control the seed
discharge rate from grain seeders, (Joftkar & Kalantari, 2011). Therefore an analytical and experimental study
is presented for evaluation of discharge rate of wheat grain from different interior hole of a storage tank of the
grain seeder. Three different apertures (circular, rectangular and square shape with the same area) are
considered in this study and their discharge rate are compared together and with the theoretical derivations.

Intl. J. Agron. Plant. Prod. Vol., 4 (8), 1997-2003, 2013

Material and Method

Physical and frictional characteristics of Alvand wheat cultivar used in the present experiments are listed
in table 1 in 12%-13% moisture content, (Razavi, 2006), (Razavi & Akbari, 2006).

bulk density (kg

Table 1: Physical, mechanical and frictional

properties of Alvand wheat in the humidity7936.164
12%, (Razavi, 2006).

1359126.24
true density(kg

filling repose angle(degree)

19.2

discharge repose angle (degree)

22.6

Poisson's ratio

0.180.02

module of elasticity (MPa)

22.24.4

diameter(mm)

dz

4.193

For measurement of grain discharge, a cylindrical tank with diameter of 35cm and a conical bottom with
angle of 45 were constructed from Galvanized iron as a model of a grain drill tank. The end of conical part
was built with three different interchangeable apertures: circular, square and rectangular gates with a same
2
cross sectional area of approximately 29 cm . For each measurement, wheat was filled inside the tank rang
ing from 35 cm to 130 cm height with seven height intervals of about 15 cm. Discharge rate of each gates was
measured by collecting the discharged grains in another container. Discharge rate was then calculated after
measuring the weight of collected grains inside the container and taking into account the time of discharge,
using Q=V/t. Through this method outlet discharge and coefficient of discharge () was calculated for each
height. SAS 9.1 software was used for statistical analysis. Mean comparisons were performed by using
Duncans multiple rage test.
Theatrical analysis of the problem
According to Fig. 1, seed mass is located in a pot with a circular hole of d in diameter located at the
bottom of it. Seeds flow out with a diameter of d1 (d1<d); thus the active bulk of seeds passing through the
circular aperture is equal to the ABDC (see Fig. 1), while the rest of seeds are stagnated in ABEF and CDGH
areas. Slope angle of falling surfaces near the aperture (discharge repose angle) is defined by ; = 45
/2
( being internal friction angle of seeds). The value of is given 32-34 for dried wheat, (Bernatski et al,
1998).

Figure 1. Discharge pattern of seeds from Reservoir

To estimate the flow rate of seeds passing the lower gate of the tank, a formula similar to the fluid flow can
be used, given by Bernatski et al (1998).

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Intl. J. Agron. Plant. Prod. Vol., 4 (8), 1997-2003, 2013

(1)

where is flow discharge coefficient which can be obtained by measurement. Discharge coefficient () is
defined as actual-to-theoretical amount of discharging grains from an aperture. The numerical value of this
index for soft seeds is considerably less than that of liquids. This is due to the more energy requirement in
seeds to overcome the internal friction in compare to the fluids.
is the bulk density of discharging seeds
through the aperture. The dynamic bulk density
is considerably less than the bulk density of static grains .
F1 is cross sectional area of the grain flow (using d1); which is less than geometrical area of the aperture (F),
and P is the static pressure directly above the aperture. For a practical use, the value of P can be estimated
by Bernatski et al (1998).
(2)
where

, see Fig. 1. After inserting the amount of P from (2) in (1) and using
, one obtains:
(3)
'

where c is flow coefficient for a circular aperture and d1=d-d represents the reduction of diameter during
'
the grain flow. According to research done by Bernakei et al (1998), d = (1.5- 3)dz; dz to be the seed diameter.
The above equation indicates that the stability of Q and therefore consistency of the grain flow depends on
'
the consistence of
and (d-d ). Based on Eq.3, it seems that by increasing the aperture diameter (d),
'

variation of
and (d-d ) reduces; therefore the grain flow rate (Q) remains consistent and more regular.
With the same procedure like above, the following expression (4) can be obtained to measure the grain
flow from a rectangular aperture.
(4)

The amount of
for a rectangular aperture is different to the amount of
for a circular aperture (r< ),
since arching of seeds occur at the corner of a rectangular aperture which reduces the amount of grain flow.
The frequency of arching depends on the type of grains inside the seed tank and the size of aperture.
After dividing the flow rate of a rectangular aperture to that of a circular aperture, one obtains
(5)
where in this equation

is the dimensionless shape factor of a rectangular aperture defined by:

(6)

By replacing
,
and
factor for a rectangular aperture in the form of:

in equation 6, we obtain a simple shape

(7)

The amount of output discharge rate for a square aperture can be obtained from (4) after substituting
'
'
and b d = a d .
(8)

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Intl. J. Agron. Plant. Prod. Vol., 4 (8), 1997-2003, 2013

Now through dividing the output discharge rate of a square section to that of a circular section, one
obtains
(9)

where

is dimensionless shape factor of the square aperture, defined by

(10)

In this experiments, dimension of rectangular aperture were selected a=6.8 cm, and b=4.3 cm. Average
'
seed diameter (dz) is 4.193 mm. Using an average value of d = 2dz from d' = (1.5 3)dz given by Bernakei et
al (1998) , we have:
,
,
A similar computation for the square aperture with 5.4 cm sides, yields
Dimensionless shape factor of the rectangular and squared apertures can be obtained after considering
the above obtained values in (7) and (10), respectively,

Now through substituting the calculated

in (5) and (10), we have:

Based on the experiments conducted in this study, the average discharge coefficient () for circular,
rectangular and square apertures obtained 0.245, 0.23 and 0.21 respectively. Considering these values, the
value of rectangular and squared aperture's discharge rate will be obtained 0.88 and 0.26 of that of the
circular aperture with the same cross sectional area, respectively.
Results and Discussion
The analysis of variance (ANOVA) for the output discharge time, discharge rate and discharge coefficient
at different grain heights in the reservoir and different gates cross section are presented in Table 2.
The results shown in table 2 indicate that difference between output discharge time, discharge rate and
discharge coefficient for the various apertures (different cross sections: circular, rectangular and square) are
significant at the 1% probability.
On the other hand, influence of different grain height inside the reservoir on the three parameters of a)
discharge time, b) output discharge rate and c) discharge coefficient were not significant at the at the 1% or
5% probability, see table 2 and Fig. 2a, b, and c. This result is consistent with the obtained theoretical
derivations, i.e., Eqs.3, 4 and 8, since the parameter height of the grain inside the reservoir does not exist in
the obtained relations.
Meanwhile based on the results presented in the table 2, interaction of aperture cross section height of
the grain inside the reservoir for all of the investigated parameters were not significant. This means that 2
parameters "cross section" and "height of grains inside the seed tank" are independent from each other.

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Intl. J. Agron. Plant. Prod. Vol., 4 (8), 1997-2003, 2013

Table 2. Analysis of variance table, discharge time,

discharge and the discharge coefficient in three
Square average
Degree cross-sectional
area and height
Changes
in
of
Discharge
resources
freedom Discharge time Discharge
coefficient
ns
ns
ns
Repeat
2
1.081
0.007
0.0003
**
**
**
Cross section
2
42.014
0.077
0.0007
ns
ns
ns
height
2
2.3
0.0081
0.00018
Height

Cross
ns
ns
ns
4
10.396
0.016
0.0001
section
Test error
16
3.572
0.006
0.0001
Coefficient
of
10.24
9.24
13.73
variation
ns: Non significant, *: significant at the level of 5%, **: significant at the level of 1%

c
Figure 2. Influence of different grain height inside the seed tank on the output discharge for different cross
sections: a) circular, b) rectangular, and c) square.
Regarding the results presented in Fig. 3, it is shown that the discharge rate of the circular aperture is the
maximum. In contrast, the squared aperture has a minimum discharge rate. It is also shown in this figure that
discharge rate of the squared aperture fluctuates with decreasing the wheat height inside the reservoir. This
mean that an accurate control of grain flow from a squared aperture is difficult in practice.

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Intl. J. Agron. Plant. Prod. Vol., 4 (8), 1997-2003, 2013

Figure 3. Comparing the output discharge rate for different

apertures.
Discharge coefficient () which illustrated in Fig.4, depends on the output discharge rate, the surface
area, acceleration of gravity and biophysical properties of the grains inside the tank, see also Eq. 1. This
coefficient is also a measure of quality of the designed aperture. Due to a transcended flow from a circular
aperture, i.e., a larger discharge coefficient , the time duration for discharging wheat from a circular aperture
is less than the other two apertures. The square aperture needs the most duration of time and has a minimum
flow stability, i.e., fluctuating discharge coefficient shown in Fig.4.

Figure 4. Comparison of discharge coefficient () for different apertures.

According to Fig. 4, discharge coefficient is independent of the height of the grains inside the tank.
Considering that the heights and acceleration of gravity and the surface area are the same for three
apertures, discharge coefficient will be only a function of flow discharge from the aperture. It is also evident
from Fig.4 that flow discharge from a squared aperture is not uniform with changing the height of grains inside
the tank. This is a disadvantage of squared apertures since the amount of seeds per hectare varies with
decreasing the height of grains inside the reservoir during the planting operations, yielding non-uniformity of
seed distribution and plant density per hectare. Circular apertures have the advantage that controlling the
amount of seeds flowing downward is easier. However construction of a circular aperture with variable cross
section in practice maybe is difficult and expensive. In this case a rectangular aperture is recommended for
seed drills.

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Intl. J. Agron. Plant. Prod. Vol., 4 (8), 1997-2003, 2013

Conclusion
The theoretical derivations (Eqs. 3, 4, and 8) indicate that the discharge of grains from a seed tank is
independent of the grain height in the reservoir, which is in contrast to the fluid flow from a reservoir. This
result is also consistent with the results presented in table 2 and also with the observations illustrated in Fig.
3.
Considering the obtained results in this study, it is found that a circular aperture is the best case for
discharging of grains from a seed tank or a reservoir. Regarding this fact that the purpose of design and
manufacture of a grain drill is to careful distribution of the seeds in the farm, a circular or a rectangular
aperture can be used in order to design the seed tank of grain drills. In contrast, a square aperture is not
recommended due to disproportion of measured and computed discharge parameters. For the experiments
performed in this study, discharge rate from the squared aperture were highly sensitive to the height changes.
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