In the current research, some of the mechanical and physical properties of two industrial varieties of potato tubers that have a prominent role in the mechanised separation process from clods and stones were investigated. These properties include the physical dimension, mass, volume, sphericity, surface area, density, projected areas and Young’s modulus. In addition, the static coefficient of friction and rolling resistance for tubers on five surface materials were determined. The tuber’s size positively affected the physical and mechanical properties of the tubers. The frictional properties of the tubers were affected by the tuber size, the surface type, and the interaction between them. The results showed that most of the apparent properties for the Sante variety were greater than those of the Marfona variety. The static coefficient of friction for the tubers on a wood surface was the maximum and was the minimum value on a galvanized sheet, but for the tuber’s rolling resistance, the results were inversed. The results proposed that the automatic separation of the potato tubers from the impurities using the properties of the crop is possible.
SUMMARYIn order to reduce bruising damage to fruits, it is necessary to know the effect of fruit properties on bruise susceptibility. Statistical bruise estimation models were constructed to determine the level of bruising in Golden Delicious apples. The regression models were built based upon peak contact force (PF) and impact energy as the main independent variables, with other parameters including fruit curvature radius, temperature and acoustic stiffness (a measure of texture/firmness of fruit and vegetables). Significant effects of acoustic stiffness, temperature and curvature radius and some interactions on bruising were obtained with determination coefficients of 0·87 and 0·93 for the force and energy models, respectively. It was demonstrated that increasing the temperature and lowering acoustic stiffness reduced bruise damage to the fruit. Golden delicious apples with a low radius of curvature developed more bruise damage compared to large apples when impacts were low, but the opposite was true for high impacts, with less damage for small fruit. No significant differences were observed between the predicted bruise volumes of models that included PF and impact energy at all impact levels.
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