EFFECT OF AIR FLOW RATE OF WINNOWING FAN ON PERFORMANCE OF RICE COMBINE HARVESTER MACHINE

Field experiments were carried out at the experimental field of Rice Mechanization center, Meet El-Deeba, kafre El-Sheikh Governorate, Egypt. Japanese combine harvesting machine, yanmar model CA- 385 (hold-in), cutting width 1400 mm, crawler traveling unit, adjusted pick tines and star wheels, were tested at three air flow rates of (0.25, 0.32 and 0.40 m3/s) and three different forward speeds of (0.94,1.62 and 2.88 km/h). The combine test to harvest rice variety (Sakha 101). The results revealed that all kinds of losses (header and threshing) was minimum of 0.69 and 0.90% at forward speed of 0.94 km/h. Also, the lowest value of cleaning and total losses was 0.30 and 1.89% at air flow rate 0.25 m3/s and forward speed of 0.94 km/h, respectively. The highest value of combine performance efficiency was 98.0% at air flow rate of 0.25m3/s and forward speed of 0.94km/h. By decreasing the air flow rate from 0.40. 0.32 and 0.25 m3/s tends to increase the whole grain from (79.2, 80.7 and 84.3%), empty grain form (0.44, 0.55 and 0.81%), impurity from (0.35, 0.51 and 1.0%) and grain with pedicel from (8.3, 13.8 and 16.4%), respectively, at forward speed of 0.94 km/h. Increasing the forward speed from 0.94, 1.62 and 2.88 km/h tends to decrease the criterion cost from 99.7,98.2and 97.3 LE/fed.