Research of a machine with a belt conveyor for drying grain

Currently, grain drying technology is imperfect. Therefore, the development and scientific substantiation of energy-saving, environmentally friendly installations for drying grain that meet the requirements of modern Russian agrarian production is an urgent and important scientific and technical task that is essential for the development of the country. To solve this problem, we have developed a contact-type installation with a belt conveyor. For an objective assessment of the research object, the specific energy consumption per 1 kg of evaporated moisture q уд, kJ/kg of moisture was taken as an optimization criterion. The study of the installation in the drying mode was carried out on oat grain. After processing the results of the experiments, a new equation was obtained. This is a regression equation in natural and coded values of independent factors. The regression equation characterizes the influence of independent factors on the optimization criterion. Having solved the regression equation, it was found that the minimum specific energy consumption for drying grain is 4388 kJ/kg of moisture. This value is achieved at an average temperature of the conveyor belt tᴤр = 60 °C and the residence time of grain in the installation τ >об = 40 s. In this case, the convergence of theoretical and experimentally obtained research results was at least 95%. The decrease in grain moisture during the heating cycle in the developed installation is 2 ... 2.5%, which corresponds to agrotechnical requirements. Thus, as a result of theoretical and experimental studies of the developed installation, it was revealed that with optimal values of independent factors, the specific energy consumption is 4388 kJ/kg of moisture, which is 1.5 times less compared to serial grain dryers, in particular, with the SZ - 1.