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If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -The purpose of this paper is to investigate the physical and mechanical characteristics of the roasted cashew nut during fracture, by subjecting the nut to varying impact load tests at different orientations to ascertain the critical impact load that fractures the shell without damaging the kernel within. This load value was correlated with other parameters; shell/kernel moisture content level, average nut mass, to determine the required projection velocity to achieve this force. This projection velocity is the critical factor in sizing and design of the optimum configurations of the shelling impeller. Design/methodology/approach -Mechanical properties of roasted cashew nut were first determined to know their fracture points. Each component of the shelling machine was designed. The components were assembled and the machine was tested for performance. Findings -Machine throughput capacity was determined as 15.57 kg/h; shelling efficiency was 95 per cent; and whole kernel recovery was 70 per cent. Practical implications -The efficiency in terms of whole kernel recovery could be improved by improving the pretreatment measures on the nuts. Originality/value -The paper presents a machine which is affordable to peasant farmers and requires little or no training for operation and maintenance. The advantage of reduced unit cost can be derived from large-scale commercial production of this sheller.

The response of active–passive–constrained layer beams is examined via the use of quasi-two-dimensional finite element formulation. Passive damping in the system is provided by a viscoelastic layer, and a piezoelectric actuation layer is used to achieve active damping. The quasi-two-dimensional finite element formulation allows through-the-thickness representation of the field variables via polynomials and their interpolation along the span by Lagrange cubic elements. The formulation is compared with the conventional formulation via numerical simulations. The response magnitudes predicted using the conventional formulation are higher than those obtained using the present formulation for systems with high core thickness, while approximately identical magnitudes are predicted for systems with low core thickness. Specific to the present quasi-two-dimensional formulation, the application of a cantilevered boundary condition to the three layers yields the same response as would have been obtained by enforcing the clamped condition on just the top and bottom layers of the cantilevered end.

Vibration and noise reduction in structures can significantly enhance dynamic stability. In fact, exploitation of such mechanisms can lead to an improvement of aerodynamic performance in flight motions by aircrafts, hydrodynamic performance in ocean water navigation by ships or floating structures, as well as dynamic behavior of machine structures in production processes and systems. In this paper slip damping with layered viscoelastic beam-plate structures for dissipation of vibration energy in aircraft, hydrodynamic, and machine structures is investigated analytically. For this problem, a boundary value partial differential equation is formulated via contact mechanics. In particular, the effect of interfacial pressure distribution variation at the interface of the layered structures on the energy dissipation and logarithmic damping decrement with such layered structures is analyzed and presented for design applications. This allows for a better understanding of the selection process of viscoelastic damping materials for such structures.