Author : Sudaria, Eutiquio E.

Summary : The study was conducted to determine the (1) cracking, shearing, bending, and tensile stresses of the coconut shell at different positions of husked mature nut; (2) hardness of the coconut shell at different positions husked mature nut; and (3) cracking stress of the husked mature coconut at different positions. The range values of the parameters under study were as follows: cracking stress of coconut shell, 3,345,083.2-5,397,828.3 kg/m (superscript 2); shearing stress of the coconut shell, 574,984.9-1,258,830.9 kg/m (superscript 2); bending stress of the coconut shell, 1,775,213.1-3,463,299.9 kg/m (superscript 2); tensile stress of the coconut shell, 61,801.9-259,002.3 kg/m (superscript 2); hardness of the coconut shell, 150C51.1-150C57.6; and the cracking stress of the husked mature nut, 280,104.0-440,227.7 kg/m (superscript 2). The combined average stresses on bending, shearing, tensile, cracking of coconut shell, and cracking of husked mature nut revealed no significant difference on stresses at any positions of the husked mature nut. This suggests that nuts could be split at any position without significant difference on power expenditure. For the design of the splitter machine, cracking stress of the coconut shell should be given the highest consideration since this parameter had the highest stress.