Study on the walnut mechanical characteristics and shucking technology based on finite element analysis

Abstract

In order to investigate the shucking technology and design the efficient Sheller, it's highly significant to study on the mechanical characteristics of walnut. The Pro/E software and finite element method was adopted to build the geometry and finite element model of walnut. Afterwards, the walnut stress distribution with different loads was analyzed to seek the optimum force-applying forms which usually produce the smaller deformation of walnut shell and more local crackles with better expansibility. The results show that the walnut shell can be shelled from the kernel easily when applied with the uniform and linear loads in the direction of shorter axis. © 2012 IFIP International Federation for Information Processing.