Determination of Engineering Properties for Development of Onion Bulblets Planter

Engineering properties of onion bulblets of variety Agrifound Dark Red were determined for developing manually operated onion bulblets planter. The raw sample of onion bulblets was graded in three groups as small, medium and larger size according to their diameters (Polar and equatorial). The engineering properties like polar diameter, equatorial diameter, unit weight, geometric mean diameter, sphericity, shape factor and bulk density of onion bulblets were determined at 74% m. c. (w. b.) and found as 23.62 mm, 13.2 mm, 1.87 mm, 15.58 mm, 0.66, 0.56 g, 607.82 kg/m³ respectively for small size, 27.9 mm, 19.54 mm, 3.91 mm, 21.30 mm, 0.70, 0.70 g, 664.47 kg/m³ respectively for medium size and 31.58 mm, 28.71 mm, 5.70 mm, 28.64 mm, 0.91, 0.91 g, 685.60 kg/m³ respectively for large size onion bulblets. The angles of repose for small, medium and large size onion bulblets were found to be 36.200, 34.210 and 33.510 respectively and values of rolling angle were as 10.21°, 10.25° and 10.45° respectively. The values of shape factor were found as 0.56 (oblate in shape), 0.70 (oblate in shape) and 0.91(spherical in shape) for small, medium and large size onion bulblets respectively.