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DYNAMIC MODELING OF PEACH FRUIT DURING NORMAL IMPACT
Author(s) -
AHMADI EBRAHIM,
GHASSEMZADEH HAMID REZA,
SADEGHI MORTEZA,
MOGHADDAM MOHAMMAD,
NESHAT SAEED ZARIF,
ETTEFAGH MIER MOHAMMAD
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
journal of food process engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.507
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1745-4530
pISSN - 0145-8876
DOI - 10.1111/j.1745-4530.2010.00603.x
Subject(s) - stiffness , viscoelasticity , curvature , contact force , radius , mechanics , impact , radius of curvature , materials science , mathematics , physics , composite material , classical mechanics , mean curvature , computer science , geometry , computer security , mean curvature flow
Impact forces during the contact are the main sources of damage in Peach fruit. In order to reduce this damage, it is necessary to model the impact forces during handling and transporting. An experimental procedure was conducted to determine the parameters of a viscoelastic normal contact force model. Peaches were subjected to dynamic loading by means of a pendulum at the levels of impact. In order to estimate the values of the parameters (spring, “k” and damping, “c”) of the Kuwabara and Kono viscoelastic contact force models for normal impacts the nonlinear least squares technique to be calculated. Two prediction models were constructed for the parameters “k” and “c” using multiple linear regression analyses. In these models, impact velocity and two fruit properties (the effective radius of curvature and acoustic stiffness) were used as independent variables. Significant effect of impact velocity, the effective radius of curvature and acoustic stiffness and some interactions on the parameters “k” and “c” were obtained at 5% probability level with the coefficient of determination of 0.99 for models. It was concluded that lowering the impact velocity and increasing the effective radius of curvature and acoustic stiffness will enhance the parameters “k” and “c” of the peach fruit, but there was no significant effect of the acoustic stiffness on the damping parameter.PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS A very promising approach for the simulation of fruit impact damage during transport and handling is the contact force discrete element method (DEM). In order to do so, models for the forces acting between particles (like fruits) in contact need to be specified. Forces acting between the two particles are decomposed into normal and tangential components. In this paper the focus is set on normal contacts. The presented research determines the parameters of normal contact forces models suited for DEM simulation of viscoelastic materials (peach fruit).