Response of the Edam cheese to impact loading

Edam cheese blocks were hit with an impact bar and the acoustic response at eight points on the cheese surface was recorded. The response signals (surface displacement and surface velocities) were detected by the laser-vibrometers. The compression and stress relaxation tests have been utilized to obtain the constitutive parameters of cheese. Strain and time dependent constants for non-linear viscoelastic materials have been found. Obtained equations have been used in the numerical simulation of the above mentioned experiment. The numerical simulation has been performed using the LS DYNA finite element code. The numerical results show reasonable agreement with experimental ones. It means that using of this acoustic impulse-response technique to evaluate Edam cheese texture and maturity is approved