Determination of the some mechanical properties and susceptibility to bruising damage of apples

International Conference on Trends in Agricultural Engineering -- SEP 15-17, 1999 -- PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLICWOS: 000089141800021In this study, compression test was performed by using Instron Testing Machine 4300 Series 8 mm diameter die and 6 mm/min crosshead speed (loading rate) was used during the test. According to the results, cultivar had an effect significantly on deformation energy and modulus of elasticity at the P<0.01 level, and no effect on deformation volume. Position also had ail effect significantly on deformation? energy and deformation volume at the P<0.05 level, and no effect on modulus of elasticity at the both levels. With respect to results concerned to some mechanical properties of four different cultivars, Braeburn apple had highest modulus of elasticity of 4.88 N/mm(2) and Granny Smith apple had least modulus of elasticity of 2.37 N/mm(2). Impact test results relaxed to bruising damage indicated that bruising damage increased with decreasing modulus of elasticity. Moreover, modulus of elasticity decreased with increasing bruising resistance coefficient expressing susceptibility, to damage. As a result, Granny Smith apple was too susceptible to damage compared to Braeburn apple

LOW COST AND LABORATORY SCALE NIR SPECTROSCOPY FOR QUALITY EVALUATION OF FRUITS AND VEGETABLES

WOS: 000449533400028NIR spectroscopy has proved to be one of the efficient and easy tools to monitor the quality of agricultural products. NIR spectrometers are versatile devices to monitor the ripeness or quality parameters of the fruits. We demonstrate a low-cost spectrometer design that is produced with off the shelf components. In this work, the development, characterization and validation of a prototype is discussed. The proposed device has a dedicated user interface on the PC to plot and analyze spectral data. The performance of the proposed spectrometer is comparable to existing laboratory scale spectrometers in terms of stability and resolution. The spectral resolution and response range of the proposed spectrometer are 20 nm and 640-1050nm, respectively. Proposed device consists of MEMS based Hamamatsu spectrometer sensor (C11708MA), microcontroller (Arduino) and IR light source. Roles of the Arduino are generating essential control signals and sampling output of the C11708MA. These spectral response data have a huge advantage in generating data sets that may be useful in building machine learning based models

COMPARISON OF MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF SOME SELECTED ALMOND CULTIVARS WITH HARD AND SOFT SHELL UNDER COMPRESSION LOADING

The mechanical properties of Nonpareil versus Gulcan 101-23 almond cultivars that have different shell properties were loaded between two parallel plates to determine the rupture force, rupture energy, rupture power requirement, toughness and firmness. The tests were carried out with three moisture contents, namely, 7.2, 22.9 and 33.6% wet basis and three loading axes (x, y, z). Physical characteristics of the almond cultivars such as length, width, thickness, geometric mean diameter, sphericity, volume, surface area and weight were determined. Physical properties of both cultivars increased as a numerical by increasing moisture content. The highest rupture force in all moisture content levels was obtained for almond pit loaded along the y-axis. In addition to rupture force, values of absorbed energy, toughness, power requirement and firmness were calculated as mechanical properties. The maximum force required to initiate pit rupture was found as maximum 554.3 N at y-axis for 7.2% moisture content and minimum 126.9 N at x-axis for 33.6% moisture content for Gulcan 101-23 cultivar. These values were determined as 53.3 and 11.2 N, respectively, for Nonpareil cultivar. Rupture force, absorbed energy, toughness, power requirement and firmness decreased with an increase of moisture content. The difference between mechanical properties of Nonpareil versus Gulcan 101-23 almond cultivars was found to be highly significant (P < 0.001)