• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• 제33권6호
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• pp.384-389
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• 2008

Three prototype chestnut harvesters were constructed and evaluated their chestnut collection ability and field efficiency. Air-lock paddle system successfully picked up all loose material, and pick up efficiency was about 56 kg/h. Power required to operate this system was evaluated to be 8.7 kW with an air flow rate of $32.6\;m^3/min$. A radial blade type blower with 0.41 m impeller diameter was considered to be a minimum size for this system. For the auger system, air was sucked into the cylinder as the hinged flat cover began to be opened by the material pushed by the auger, and the empty burrs flew back to the container through the space between auger flights and collected in the bottom of the container. It was considered to add a device to prevent air from flowing back or to use the back flowing air for separation of burrs and nuts inside the container. The venturi system could not pick up chestnuts, as they only carried part way up to the suction hose. Consideration was given to an idea that the venturi could be used as a cleaning and separation mechanism for containers filled with both empty burrs and good nuts. A minimum vacuum of 129 mm wg was required to pick up chestnuts, and the corresponding inlet air velocity was 19.3 m/s. 104 mm of vacuum, which was about 81 % of that required for nuts, was enough to pick up burrs with nuts inside. Also, empty burrs with higher moisture content recorded the same pressure as for the burrs with nuts.