Western Illinois University – School of Agriculture
AGTM 464: Grain Drying, Handling, and Storage Systems (3)
Course Syllabus – Fall 2015 “Subject to Change”
Course Meets:
Text:
Instructor:
Office:
Lab Fee:
Office Hours:
MWF 9:00 – 9:50 am in KH 307
Grain Drying, Handling, and Storage Handbook – Second Edition - MWPS-13
https://www-mwps.sws.iastate.edu/ ISBN: 0-89373-071-8
Dr. Daniel Atherton
E-mail:
DL-Atherton@wiu.edu
B 22 Knoblauch Hall
Office Phone: 309-298-2395
$10.00
MTWF 10:00 to 11:00 or by appointment
Dr. Atherton’s Fall 2015 Course Schedule
Time
8:00 – 8:50
9:00 – 9:50
10:00 – 10:50
11:00 – 11:50
12:00 – 12:50
1:00 – 1:50
2:00 – 2:50
3:00 – 3:50
4:00 – 4:50
5:00 – 5:50
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
AGTM 464 (KH 307)
Office Hour (KH B22)
Office Hour (KH B22)
AGTM 464 (KH 307)
Office Hour (KH B22)
AGTM 360 (KH 306)
AGTM 368 (KH 307)
Thursday
AGTM 360 (KH 306)
AGTM 360 (KH 306)
AGTM 360 (KH 306)
AGTM 368 (KH 307)
AGTM 368 (KH 3B)
AGTM 368 (KH 3B)
Friday
AGTM 464 (KH 307)
Office Hour (KH B22)
AGTM 360 (KH 306)
AGTM 368 (KH 3B)
AGTM 368 (KH 3B)
Course Description: 464 Grain Drying, Handling, and Storage Systems - (3) Application of engineering
principles pertaining to drying, storing, and handling of agricultural products.
Course Objectives:
 Awareness of the strength of materials and reasons for structural failures
 Describe crop quality standards
 Complete moisture calculations and shrinkage management
 Describe methods of drying crops including heated drying and natural/low temperature methods
 Learn guidelines for planning grain handling systems
 Calculate bin volume and determine fan sizing requirements for drying and cooling grain
 Describe methods for monitoring bin temperature and pressure
 Develop proficiency for usage of psychrometric charts
 Explain migration of moisture in grain drying
 Describe methods for transporting grain
Attendance: Attendance is mandatory. If class is missed, please use the OARS system to report your absence
(www.wiu.edu/oars). I need the email generated from this system prior to class, not after. It is the student’s
responsibility to coordinate with the instructor to make up missed work. Quizzes may be given at any time
and no makeup quizzes will be given unless the instructor approves the absence prior to missing class.
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Quality of Work Policy: All assignments should be word processed with title of assignment, name, date, and a
summary of the assignment included at the beginning of the assignment. Run spell-checker. If completing
multiple-step problems, show all work. Your work should be neat and orderly.
Academic Dishonesty: Any violation of the Academic Dishonesty Policy in Student Handbook will result in an
automatic failure of the course. Plagiarism and cheating are unacceptable.
Assessment and Grading: Your final grade is based on your overall weighted percent on the following
components of the course:
Component
Percentage
Exam 1
15%
Exam 2
15%
Final Exam
20%
Semester Project
20%
Quizzes
15%
Class Participation
15%
Grading Scale
A
93 – 100%
B+
87 – 89%
B80 – 82%
C
73 – 76%
D+
67 – 69%
D60 – 62%
AB
C+
CD
F
90 – 92%
83 – 86%
77 – 79%
70 – 72%
63 – 66%
< 60%
Students Rights and Responsibilities: www.wiu.edu/provost/students/
Final Grades: Unless a computational error was made, grades will not be changed after the end of the
semester. Please do not come to the instructor with “extenuating circumstances” for why your grade should
be changed – the semester grade represents the level of work you completed over the semester.
Late Assignments: No late assignments will be accepted unless the instructor approves of turning in an
assignment late prior to the assignment’s due date. Assignments will be due at the beginning of class on their
due date. Hand written assignments will not be accepted unless instructed otherwise. Assignments will be
written in 12 point font with 1” margins. Points will be deducted for incorrect spelling and grammar.
Attention Education Majors: The changes within the state certification require all education majors to receive
a grade of a "C" or better in this course in order to meet these new requirements. With the university +/grading system, receiving a "C-" or below will require you to retake this course or find a substitute course to
meet School of Agriculture graduation requirements.
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Professional Learning Environment: Please be respectful of your fellow students and the instructor and do
your part to maintain the professional learning environment of this course. Please silence your cell phones.
Avoid texting during class. Individual disruptions, such as entering the classroom late, allowing your cell
phone to ring audibly, engaging in unrelated activities (e.g., texting or surfing the web) during class time, or
packing your belongings before class ends, distract other students and detract from the quality of the
learning environment for the whole class. Infractions will be noted and your class participation grade will
suffer. The instructor reserves the right to ask for cell phones to be returned to students after the class period
or to remove from group work a student who is demonstrating inadequate levels of participation.
Students with Disabilities: In accordance with University values and disability law, students with disabilities
may request academic accommodations where there are aspects of a course that result in barriers to inclusion
or accurate assessment of achievement. To file an official request for disability-related accommodations,
please contact the Disability Resource Center at 309-298-2512, disability@wiu.edu or in 143 Memorial Hall.
Please notify the instructor as soon as possible to ensure that this course is accessible to you in a timely
manner.
*** Scheduling and weekly topics are subject to change at instructor’s discretion ***
Schedule:
Week 1: Introduction to course, strengths of materials and reasons for structural failures. Review of tensile,
compressive, and shear stresses, material fracture, material fatigue, S-N curves, fatigue life, and creep. Failure
analysis of grain bins.
Week 2: Crop quality standards: grading factors – damaged kernels, foreign material, test weight, heatdamaged kernels, stones, musty, sour or heating, odor, low quality, infested. Grain movement using trucks,
rail, and barges. Locating and developing a grain center. Central or distributed sites, site characteristics, space
requirements, drainage, electrical service, arrangement and layout for bins, dryers, fuel storage, weight scale,
and roads.
Week 3: (Labor Day – no class) Locating and developing a grain center (continued). Grain receiving capacity,
grain conveyors, auger capacity, diameter, pitch, grain type, belt conveyors, pneumatic conveyors.
Determining bin size needs by calculating grain bin volume.
Week 4: Grain receiving capacity, grain conveyors, auger capacity, diameter, pitch, grain type, belt conveyors,
pneumatic conveyors. Determining bin size needs by calculating grain bin volume. Bucket elevators – pros
and cons, required height to meet minimum angles due to angle of repose for dry and wet grains or feed
mixes. Calculate required height of bucket elevator and length of downspouts with respect to grain center
layout.
Week 5: Exam I. Grain moisture and shrinkage factor to determine bushels by moisture content. Separate
into groups for semester project – describe project.
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Week 6: Equilibrium moisture content. Describing air properties using a psychrometric chart. Relative
humidity, dry-bulb and wet-bulb temperature, humidity ratio, dew point.
Week 7: Describing air properties (continued). Driving moisture out of/or into crops. Methods for drying
crops – using specific temperature or a combination of temperatures. Drying schemes.
Week 8: (10/16 – Fall Break – no class) Low temperature, full bin drying. Layer-in-bin drying. Batch-in-bin
drying. Batch drying. Continuous flow drying. Comparisons of methods. Dryeration. Project update by
project teams.
Week 9: Low temperature, full bin drying. Layer-in-bin drying. Batch-in-bin drying. Batch drying. Continuous
flow drying. Comparisons of methods. Dryeration. Drying front vs. drying zone. Moisture migration of crop
drying.
Week 10: Comparisons of drying methods. Dryeration. Drying front vs. drying zone. Moisture migration of
crop drying. Fan airflow rate and static pressure. Grain depth and air flow rate comparisons. Air flow
resistance vs. air velocity, grain depth vs. static pressure, static pressure vs. fan type – fan sizing requirements.
Project update by project teams.
Week 11: Fan airflow rate and static pressure. Grain depth and air flow rate comparisons. Air flow resistance
vs. air velocity, grain depth vs. static pressure, static pressure vs. fan type – fan sizing requirements.
Week 12: Air flow resistance vs. air velocity, grain depth vs. static pressure, static pressure vs. fan type – fan
sizing requirements.
Week 13: Exam II. Mycotoxins in grain. Project updates by project teams.
Thanksgiving Break – Nov. 23-27 – no class
Week 14: Teams work on project presentations.
Week 15: Project Presentations. Review for final exam.
Final Exam: Wednesday, December 16th from 8:00 to 9:50 pm in room KH 307
*** Scheduling and weekly topics are subject to change at instructor’s discretion ***
August 24, 2015
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