ABSTRACT
The world produces annually about 2 billion tonnes (Gt) of grains and oilseeds [1] that are handled and stored on-and off-farm for periods of up to 3 years. Often the storage period may be longer than 3 years, for example, when the grain is stored for potential famine relief. To design handling, inspection, and storage systems for grains and oilseeds, data on many properties of individual seeds and seeds in bulk are needed. The properties of interest are: bulk and particle densities, porosity, roundness, sphericity, friction coefcients of grains against commonly used bin wall materials, emptying and lling angles of repose, equilibrium moisture content (EMC), specic heat, thermal conductivity, dielectric
constant, electrical conductivity, re¤ectance, terminal velocity, and drag coefcient. There are many methods of measuring these properties. In this chapter, only the methods that are currently in use or widely accepted methods are described. Representative property values for common grains and oilseeds are summarized from the published literature.
