ناصر بهروزی خزاعی

The present investigation deals with analyzing the compressive strength properties of two varieties (Tarom and Fajr) of parboiled paddy and milled rice including: ultimate stress, modulus of elasticity, rupture force and rupture energy. Combined artificial neural network and genetic algorithm were also applied to model these properties. The parboiled samples were prepared with three soaking temperatures (25, 50 and 75C) and three steaming times (10, 15 and 20 min). The samples were then dried to final moisture contents of 8, 10 and 12% (w.b.). In general, Tarom variety had higher compressive strength properties for paddy and milled rice than Fajr variety. With increase in steaming time from 10 to 20 min, all mentioned properties increased significantly, whereas these properties were decreased with increasing moisture content from 8 to 12% (w.b.). Coupled artificial neural network and genetic algorithm model with one hidden layer, three inputs (soaking temperature, steaming time and moisture content), was developed to predict the compressive strength properties as model outputs. Results indicated that this model could predict these properties with high correlation and low mean squared error.