Journal of Food Engineering 79 (2007) 731–735

www.elsevier.com/locate/jfoodeng

Physical properties of pea (Pisum sativum) seed

_ Yalçın *, C. Özarslan, T. Akbasß
I.
Department of Agricultural Machinery, Faculty of Agriculture, Adnan Menderes University, Aydın, Turkey

Received 22 October 2005; accepted 21 February 2006

Available online 21 April 2006

Abstract

The physical properties of pea seed were evaluated as a function of moisture content. The average length, width and thickness were
7.80, 6.41 and 5.55 mm, respectively, at a moisture content of 10.06% dry basis (d.b.). In the moisture range from 10.06% to 35.08% d.b.,
studies on rewetted pea seed showed that the thousand seed mass increased from 177.7 to 214.1 g, the projected area from 30.84 to
44.08 mm2, the sphericity from 0.836 to 0.851, the porosity from 38.64% to 40.32% and the terminal velocity from 9.0 to 9.4 m/s.
The static coefficient of friction of pea seed increased the linearly against surfaces of four structural materials, namely, rubber (0.388–
0.413), aluminium (0.292–0.351), stainless steel (0.270–0.311) and galvanised iron (0.360–0.409) as the moisture content increased from
10.06% to 35.08% d.b. The bulk density decreased from 712.1 to 647.5 kg/m3 and the true density from 1160.5 to 1085.0 kg/m3 respec-
tively, with an increase in moisture content from 10.06% to 35.08% d.b.
Ó 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Pea seed; Physical properties; Moisture content

1. Introduction nal velocity, static coefficient of friction against different

Pea (Pisum sativum) is one of the most common food
plants in Turkey grown for fresh consumption and raw
material of canned food industry. The green pea contains
6.7% protein, 0.5% oil and 13.9% carbohydrates (S ß ehirali,
1988). Pea is grown on 1450 ha areas in Turkey with a pro-
duction rate of 4000 t (SIS, 2002).
The physical properties of pea seeds are essential for the
design of equipment and facilities for the harvesting, han-
dling, conveying, separation, drying, aeration, storing and
processing the pea seeds. Various types of cleaning grading
and separation equipment are designed on the basis of their
physical properties as a function of moisture content. It
seems that there is not much published work relating to
moisture dependent physical properties of pea seed.
The objective of this study was to investigate some mois-
ture-dependent physical properties of pea seed namely,
namely, linear dimensions, sphericity, thousand seed mass,
projected area, bulk density, true density, porosity, termi-
*
Corresponding author. Fax: +90 256 7727233.
_ Yalçın).
E-mail address: iyalcin45@yahoo.com (I.
surfaces.
2. Materials and methods
The dry seeds of pea cultivar, Bolero, were used for all
the experiments in this study. The seeds were cleaned man-
ually to remove all foreign matter such as dust, dirt, stones
and chaff as well as immature, broken seeds. The initial
moisture content of the seeds was determined by oven dry-
ing at 105 ± 1 °C for 24 h (Suthar & Das, 1996). The initial
moisture content of the seeds was 10.06% d.b.
The samples of the desired moisture contents were pre-
pared by adding the amount of distilled water as calculated
from the following relation (Sacilik, Öztürk & Keskin,
2003).
W i ðM f  M i Þ
Q¼ ð1Þ
ð100  M f Þ
The samples were then poured in to separate polyethyl-
ene bags and the bags sealed tightly. The samples were kept
at 5 °C in a refrigerator for a week to enable the moisture

0260-8774/$ - see front matter Ó 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jfoodeng.2006.02.039
732 I._ Yalçın et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 79 (2007) 731–735
Nomenclature
Ap projected area, mm2
L length of seed, mm
m1000 thousand seed mass, g
Mc moisture content, % d.b.
Mf final moisture content of sample, % d.b.
Mi initial moisture content of sample, % d.b.
Pf porosity, %
Q mass of water to added, kg
T thickness of seed, mm
Vt terminal velocity, m/s
W width of seed, mm
Wi initial mass of sample, kg
to distribute uniformly throughout the sample. Before
starting a test, the required quantity of the seed was taken
out of the refrigerator and allowed to warm up to the room
temperature for about 2 h (Özarslan, 2002).
All the physical properties of the seeds were assessed at
moisture levels of 10.06%, 12.40%, 19.03%, 24.77% and
35.08% d.b. with ten replications at each moisture content.
The moisture content of pea seed should be in the range
from 10% to 16% for long storage period. However, the
moisture content of threshed pea seed may be over 24%
(S
ß ehirali, 1988).
To determine the average size of the seed, 100 seeds were
randomly picked and their three linear dimensions namely,
length L, width W and thickness T were measured using a
micrometer reading to 0.01 mm.
The sphericity of seeds / was calculated by using the fol-
lowing relationship (Mohsenin, 1970):
ðLWT Þ1=3
/¼ ð2Þ
L
The one thousand seed mass was determined by means
of an electronic balance reading to 0.001 g.
The projected area of a seed was measured by a scanner
connected to a computer. For this purpose, a special com-
puter program was used (Özarslan, 2002).
The average bulk density of the pea seed was determined
using the standard test weight procedure (Singh & Gosw-
ami, 1996) by filling a container of 500 ml with the seed
from a height of 150 mm at a constant rate and then weigh-
ing the content. No separate manual compaction of seeds
was done. The bulk density was calculated from the mass
of the seeds and the volume of the container.
The true density defined as the ratio between the mass of
pea seed and true volume of seed was determined using the
toluene displacement method. Toluene was used in place of
water because it is absorbed by seeds to a lesser extend. The
volume of toluene displaced was found by immersing a
weighed quantity of pea seed in the toluene (Sacilik, Öztürk
& Keskin, 2003).
a angle of tilt, degree
l static coefficient of friction
qb bulk density, kg/m3
qt true density, kg/m3
/ sphericity of seed
Subscripts
al aluminium
gi galvanised iron
ru rubber
ss stainless steel
The porosity of pea seed at various moisture contents
was calculated from bulk and true densities using the rela-
tionship given by Mohsenin (1970) as follows:
P f ¼ ð1  qb =qt Þ  100 ð3Þ
where: Pf is the porosity in %, qb is the bulk density in kg/m3
and qt is the true density in kg/m3.
The terminal velocities of seeds at different moisture
contents were measured using a cylindrical air column
(Joshi, Das & Mukherjee, 1993; Yalçın & Özarslan,
2004). For each experiment, a sample was dropped into
the air stream from the top of the air column, up which
air was blown to suspend the material in the air stream.
The air velocity near the location of the seed suspension
was measured by a hot wire anemometer having a least
count of 0.01 m/s.
The static coefficient of friction of pea seed against four
different structural materials, namely rubber, aluminium,
stainless steel and galvanised iron was determined. A poly-
vinylchloride cylindrical pipe of 50 mm in diameter and
50 mm in height was placed on an adjustable tilting plate,
faced with the test surface and filled with the seed sample.
The cylinder was raised slightly so as not to touch the sur-
face. The structural surface with the cylinder resting on it
was raised gradually with a screw device until the cylinder
just started to slide down and the angle of tilt a was read
from a graduated scale (Singh & Goswami, 1996; Suthar
& Das, 1996). The coefficient of friction was calculated from
the following relationship:
l ¼ tan a ð4Þ
where l is the coefficient of friction and a is the angle of tilt
in degrees.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Seed dimensions and size distribution
The mean dimensions of 100 seeds measured at a mois-
ture content of 10.06% d.b.: are: length 7.80 ± 0.49 mm,
 I._ Yalçın et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 79 (2007) 731–735 733

width 6.41 ± 0.44 mm, and thickness 5.55 ± 0.42 mm. 50

About 88% of the seeds have a length ranging from 7.0
to 8.5 mm; about 79%, a width ranging from 6.0 to 45

7.0 mm; and about 76%, a thickness ranging from 5.0 to

Projected area (mm2)

40
6.0 mm at 10.06% d.b. moisture content.
35
3.2. One thousand seed mass
30
The one thousand seed mass m1000 increased linearly
from 177.77 to 214.10 g as the moisture content increased 25
from 10.06% to 35.08% d.b. (Fig. 1). An increase of
20.44% in the one thousand seed mass was recorded within 20
the above moisture range. The linear equation for one 6 14 22 30 38
Moisture content (% d.b.)
thousand seed mass can be formulated to be:
Fig. 2. Effect of moisture content on projected area.
m1000 ¼ 162:78 þ 1:484M c ðR2 ¼ 0:9971Þ ð5Þ
A linear increase in the one thousand pea seed mass as 0.870
the seed moisture content increases has been noted by Saci-
lik, Öztürk and Keskin (2003) for hemp, Singh and Gosw- 0.860
ami (1996) for cumin and Yalçın and Özarslan (2004) for
vetch. Sphericity (decimal) 0.850

3.3. Projected area of seed 0.840

The projected area of pea seed (Fig. 2) increased from 0.830

30.84 to 44.08 mm2, while the moisture content of seed
increased from 10.06% to 35.08% d.b. The variation in pro- 0.820
jected area Ap in mm2 with moisture content of pea seed
can be represented by the following equation: 0.810
6 14 22 30 38
Moisture content (% d.b.)
Ap ¼ 24:92 þ 0:527M c ðR2 ¼ 0:9841Þ ð6Þ
Fig. 3. Effect of moisture content on sphericity.
Similar trends have been reported by Özarslan (2002)
for cotton, Öğüt (1998) for white lupin and Tang and
Sokhansanj (1993) for lentil. / ¼ 0:8302 þ 0:0006M c ðR2 ¼ 0:9967Þ ð7Þ
Similar trends have been reported by Aydin, Öğüt, and
3.4. Sphericity Konak (2002) for Turkish mahaleb, Sacilik, Öztürk and
Keskin (2003) for hemp seed and Özarslan (2002) for cot-
The sphericity of pea seed increased from 0.836 to 0.851 ton seed.
with the increase in moisture content (Fig. 3). The relation-
ship between sphericity and moisture content Mc in % d.b. 3.5. Bulk density
can be represented by the following equation:
The values of the bulk density for different moisture lev-
els varied from 712.1 to 647.5 kgm3 (Fig. 4). The bulk den-
230
sity of seed was found to bear the following relationship
220 with moisture content:
Thousand seed mass (g)

210 qb ¼ 733:36  2:5823M c ðR2 ¼ 0:9662Þ ð8Þ

200 A similar decreasing trend in bulk density has been
reported by Öğüt (1998) for white lupin and Gupta and
190
Das (1997) for sunflower seed.
180
3.6. True density
170

160
The true density varied from 1160.5 to 1085.0 kg/m3
6 14 22 30 38 when the moisture level increased from 10.06% to 35.08%
Moisture content (% d.b.)
d.b. (Fig. 5). The true density and the moisture content
Fig. 1. Effect of moisture content on thousand seed mass. of seed can be correlated as follows:
734 I._ Yalçın et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 79 (2007) 731–735

730 46

44
705
Bulk density (kg/m3)

42

Porosity (%)
40
680

38

655 36

34
630
6 14 22 30 38 32
Moisture content (% d.b.) 6 14 22 30 38
Moisture content (% d.b.)
Fig. 4. Effect of moisture content on bulk density.
Fig. 6. Effect of moisture content on porosity.

1250
9.6

1200
True density (kg/m3)

Terminal velocity (m/s) 9.4

1150

9.2
1100

1050 9

1000
6 14 22 30 38 8.8
Moisture content (% d.b.) 6 14 22 30 38
Moisture content (% d.b.)
Fig. 5. Effect of moisture content on true density.
Fig. 7. Effect of moisture content on terminal velocity.

qt ¼ 1184  2:9879M c ðR2 ¼ 0:9600Þ ð9Þ

The results were similar to those reported by Özarslan
(2002) for cotton seed and Sacilik, Öztürk and Keskin
(2003) for hemp seed.
3.7. Porosity
The porosity of pea seed increased from 38.64% to
40.32% with the increase in moisture content from
10.06% to 35.08% d.b. (Fig. 6). The relationship between
porosity and moisture content can be represented by the
following equation:
P f ¼ 37:997 þ 0:069M c ðR2 ¼ 0:9801Þ
Çarman (1996), Gupta and Das (1997), Konak, Çarman
and Addin (2002), Öğüt (1998) and Yalçın and Özarslan
(2004) reported similar trends in the case of chick pea,
white lupin, sunflower, lentil and vetch seeds, respectively.
3.8. Terminal velocity
The experimental results for the terminal velocity of pea
seed at various moisture levels are shown in Fig. 7. The ter-
minal velocity was found to increase linearly from 9.00 to
9.40 m s1 as the moisture content increased from 10.06%
to 35.08% d.b. The relationship between terminal velocity
and moisture content can be represented by the following
equation:
V t ¼ 8:8771 þ 0:0149M c ðR2 ¼ 0:9823Þ ð11Þ
Similar results were reported by Çarman (1996), Gupta
and Das (1997), Sacilik, Öztürk and Keskin (2003), Singh
and Goswami (1996) and Suthar and Das (1996) in the case
of sunflower, karingda, cumin, lentil and hemp seeds,
respectively.
3.9. Static coefficient of friction
ð10Þ
The static coefficient of friction of pea seed on four sur-
faces (rubber, aluminium, stainless steel and galvanised
iron) against moisture content in the range 10.06% to
35.08% d.b. are presented in Fig. 8. It was observed that
the static coefficient of friction increased with an increase
in moisture content for all the surfaces. This is due to the
increased adhesion between the seed and the material sur-
faces at higher moisture values. Increases of 6.44%,
20.21%, 15.19% and 13.61% were observed in the case of
rubber, aluminium, stainless steel and galvanised iron,
 I._ Yalçın et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 79 (2007) 731–735 735

0.45 0.851 with the increase in moisture content from

10.06% to 35.08% d.b.
(2) The projected area increased from 30.84 to
0.40
44.08 mm2 and the porosity increased from 38.64%
Coefficient of friction

to 40.32%.
(3) The bulk density decreased linearly from 712.1 to
0.35
647.5 kg/m3 and the true density decreased from
1160.5 to 1085.0 kg/m3.
0.30 (4) The terminal velocity increased from 9.00 to 9.40 m/s.
(5) The static coefficient of friction increased for all four
surfaces, namely, rubber (0.388–0.413), aluminium
0.25 (0.292–0.351), stainless steel (0.270–0.311) and gal-
6 14 22 30 38
Moisture content (% d.b.)
vanised iron (0.360–0.409).

Fig. 8. Effect of moisture content on static coefficient of friction; (m)

rubber; (d) aluminium; (s) galvanized iron; (h) stainless steel.
References

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to 35.08% d.b. At all moisture contents, the least static
coefficient of friction was on stainless steel. As the moisture
content of the seed increased, the static coefficients
increased significantly. This is due to the increased adhe-
sion between the product and the surface at higher mois-
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lru ¼ 0:3789 þ 0:001M c ðR2 ¼ 0:9936Þ
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