Mechanical properties and energy evolution mechanism of wheat grain under uniaxial compression

To determine the mechanical properties and energy evolution characteristics of wheat kernels during compression, the mechanical properties and energy evolution of wheat kernels with high-gluten, medium-gluten, and low-gluten were analyzed in uniaxial compression test. Based on the theory of Hertz's formula, the stress-strain laws of the three varieties of wheat kernels in the process of compression damage were investigated; Based on the law of energy conservation, the energy evolution characteristics of the three varieties of wheat kernels under the same compression conditions were analyzed. The results showed that the stress-strain process of wheat kernels with high-gluten, medium-gluten, and low-gluten under compressive stress followed a similar trend overall, with the corresponding minimum failure strengths at the peak being 51.79 MPa, 50.07 MPa, and 46.21 MPa, respectively. The energy evolution patterns of three varieties of wheat kernels under uniaxial compressive loading were approximately the same, indicating that the elastic energy was mainly accumulated before the peak and reached the maximum at the peak. In contrast, the proportion of dissipated energy increases after the peak and rapidly exceeds the elastic energy. In this paper, the damage characteristics of wheat kernels are described from the energy point of view, which is of great significance for the new conceptualization of the evolution of wheat grain damage.