INTRODUCTION TO ENGINEERING PROPERTIES OF AB MATERIALS

Engineering properties are the properties which are useful and necessary in the design and
operation of equipment employed in the field of agricultural processing. They are also useful for
design and development of other farm machinery.

Operations such as cleaning, grading, drying, dehydration, storage, milling, handling and
transportation, thermal processing of foods are among the important operations in
agricultural processing.

In these operations while handling of grans and other commodities the properties which play an
important role are physical, mechanical, frictional, rheological, aero and hydrodynamic,
electrical and optical properties are of great importance and help for the engineers, food scientist
and processors towards efficient process and equipment development.

PROPERTIES OF AB MATERIALS

Physical Properties

The physical properties such as size, shape, surface area, volume, density, porosity, colour,
and appearance are important in designing particular equipment or determining the behavior of the
product for its handling.

Various types of cleaning grading and separation equipment are designed on the basis of physical
properties of seeds such as size, shape, specific gravity, surface roughness, colour etc.

For designing an air screen grain cleaner, the shape and size of the grain determine the shape
and size of screen openings, angle of inclination and vibration amplitude and frequency of screens.

The density of the grains decides the size of screening surface.

The frontal area and related diameters and density are essential for determination of terminal
velocity of the grain.

Terminal velocity is necessary to decide about the winnowing velocity of air blast for separation of
lighter materials in air screen grain cleaners.

The shape of product is an important parameter which affects conveying characteristics of solid
materials by air or water. The shape is also considered in calculation of various cooling and heating
loads of food materials.

The frontal area and the related diameters are essential for determination of terminal velocity
of Reynold’s number and drag coefficient.

The density and specific gravity are needed for calculating the thermal diffusivity in heat transfer
operations, in determining Reynold’s number, in pneumatic and hydraulic handling of the agricultural
materials.

The surface characteristics, colour and appearance are exploited for selective separation and
storage of fruits and vegetables.
 PROPERTIES AND CHARACTERISTICS OF AGRICULTURAL MATERIALS

Physical Properties of Agricultural Products:

When physical properties of grains, seeds, fruits and vegetables, eggs, forage, and fibers are studied by
considering either bulk or individual units of the material, it is important to have an accurate estimate
of shape, size, volume, specific gravity, surface area, and other physical characteristics which may be
considered as engineering parameters for that product.

 SIZE

Size is defined as the weight of and/or dimension (length, width, or diameter) of one unit of a
commodity. For semi spherical commodities, two diameters are often considered: the stem-apical
(or polar) diameter and the equatorial diameter.

 METHODS OF MEASUREMENT

Weighing scales – for direct measurement of the weight of a sample. This is the simplest method of
determining the size of an object.

Measuring aids – for direct measurement of the major dimensions of an object such as length,
width and/or diameter. These tools include rulers, calipers, and templates where different size
classifications are depicted.

Correlation of weight with major dimensions – a mathematical relationship between an

object’s weight and its major dimensions can be derived using statistical analysis. In simple terms, this
implies that heavier objects have correspondingly larger dimensions. A sufficiently large number of
samples are needed to ensure a thorough sampling.

Machine vision – use of computers equipped with cameras that can automatically measure the
major dimensions of an object and calculate its weight using the derived relationship as described.

 APPLICATIONS

As a basis for classifying produce – major dimensions of an object are often used as indicators of
maturity, or as the basis of pricing. These dimensions are commonly the length and/or diameter of the
object. Pummelo, tomato, and onion, for example, are classified based on their diameter, while for
carrot, young cob corn, eggplant, rose, and chrysanthemum, size is based on length of the commodity.

 SHAPE

Shape can be defined as the general outline or profile of a commodity.

Methods of determination – many methods of describing the shape of an object have been
developed. Some of the most common are given below:

 Charted standards – a tracing of the outline of a sample is compared to standard shapes

published by relevant agencies, such as government standards offices, after extensive
consultations with industry stakeholders. This method is simple but very subjective and
results can vary among different observers.
  Comparison with geometric shapes – commodities come in an infinite variety of shapes
that can be approximated by regular geometric objects and their various combinations.

 Shape descriptors – descriptors are simply combinations of size parameters such as

minimum and maximum diameters or radii, length, and width. Size parameters may be
measured using rulers, calipers or by machine vision system. The different descriptors are
then used, individually or in combination to distinguish between different classes of a
commodity, e.g, misshapen and acceptable fruit. Only a few examples are given below:

 Roundness – is a measure of the sharpness of corners of an object.

 Sphericity – is a measure of how close an object approximates a sphere of the same
volume. It is expressed as the ratio between the geometric mean diameter over the
largest diameter of the object.

APPLICATIONS

As a maturity index – angularity of banana fingers is a common indicator of maturity. When

immature, the cross-section of a banana finger shows several prominent angles. These angles
gradually disappear as the fruit matures, reducing the angularity of the fruit.

As basis of design of equipment – fruits that are round can be separated into different sizes using
a mechanical sizer with rotating perforated drums.

As basis for grading – buyers can reject a commodity due to its shape. Philippine exporters reject
Carabao mangoes that are deformed or are too round or elongated. Solo papaya is also rejected if it is
too rounded. Misshapen tomatoes are culled out in local markets and may be sold at a lower price.

VOLUME

Volume is the space occupied by one unit of a commodity, expressed in terms of cubic meters or
cubic centimeters.

Table 4-1. Physical characterization of young coconut

Maturity
Dimension 6-7 months after flowering 7-8 months after flowering
Mean SD Mean SD
A 4.01 0,84 4.63 0.66
B 10.62 0.83 9.92 0.50
C 3.15 0.38 2.62 0.58
D 2.13 0.39 2.04 0.42
E 10.31 0.79 10.77 0.52
F 2.43 0.46 2.24 0.41
G 14.70 0.82 15.00 0.59
H 17.58 0.84 16.95 1.03

METHODS OF MEASUREMENT

Water displacement method – the object to be measured is immersed in a graduated cylinder or a

flask, forcing water to be displaced or to overflow into a receiver. The volume of the displaced water in
the receiver or the change in the water level in the graduated cylinder is equivalent to the volume of
the object.

Weighing in air and water – the weight of the sample in air is first measured on a weighing scale,
and then pushed under water with a rod. The reading of the scale when the sample is under water
minus the combined weight of container and water is the weight of displaced water. Weight of
displaced water divided by density of pure water (1 g cm-3) gives the volume of the object.

Correlation with major dimensions – mathematical relationships between volume and major
dimensions of an object can also be derived, as described previously for size determination.

Resemblance to geometric bodies – the volume of a commodity may be estimated from

mathematical formulas for geometric bodies with similar spheres is affected by the radius of the inner
sphere through a known mathematical relationship.

APPLICATIONS

Design of equipment – for example, the volume of a mango fruit must be known in order to
determine the dimensions of a hot water tank needed for disease control. The tank must have enough
freeboard (space above the water level) so that water does not overflow when the fruit is submerged.

Sorting and nondestructive testing of fruit – capacitance was used to develop an automated
sorter for Parnassus Queen watermelon. An external tunnel acts as the outer sphere while the sample
to be measured is considered as the inner sphere. The volume of the object is estimated by applying
current at 1 MHz to the two spheres and measuring the capacitance between them with a precision
meter. The sorter was able to cull out hollow fruit and estimate the level of soluble solid content non-
destructively.

DENSITY, SPECIFIC GRAVITY, and VOLUME:

Density and specific gravity of food material play an important role in design of storage bins,
conveying equipment, separation equipment etc. Density can be bulk density or unit density. Bulk
density (kg/m3) is obtained by weighing a known volume of the product, while a unit density is
obtained by measuring the volume and weight of a unit product. Specific gravity also known as
relative density is the ratio of density of a substance to the density of a standard substance at the same
temperature and pressure. For liquids and solids the standard substance is water while for gasses it is
air. Specific gravity of a product is obtained by the use of specific gravity balance. Using this balance
the product is weighed in air and in water. The

SURFACE AREA OF AB MATERIALS

Surface Area:
The knowledge of surface area (m 2) of some parts of plant such as leaf area, surface area of fruits is
important to plant scientists as well as engineers. Surface area of a product is important in designing a
conveying equipment, cleaning and separation equipment. Some of the methods used for measuring
surface area are:
- contact printing the surface on a light sensitive paper and measuring the area by a
planimeter.
- Tracing the area on a graph paper and counting the squares.
- Use of a photographic projector-light interception method and
 - Use of an air flow planimeter which measure the area as a function of the surface
obstruction to flow of air. This is fast and reliable method.

Fruit surface area can be measured by peeling the fruit in a narrow strips and using a planimeter to
measure the area and sum of the stripes is taken as accurate surface area. The following relationship
can also be used to determine surface area of spheroid bodies using the geometrical measurements.

POROSITY OF AB MATERIALS

Porosity: the percent void space in a product. This property is needed in air flow and heat flow
studies. Porosity of granular and unconsolidated materials is measured using a device which is
specifically designed for that purpose. However, porosity which is also referred to as packing factor PF
may be calculated from the following relationship.

Density of packing may be found by weighing a given volume of packed particles.

Moisture content: the amount of water present in that product. When studying engineering
properties of agricultural products, it is important to indicate the moisture content at which it is being
studied. moisture content affects other engineering properties. moisture content of agricultural
products can be measured using different methods. However, the oven method of determining
moisture content is used very frequently. Using this method a known weight the product is dried in an
oven for a given period of time and given temperature and weighed. The moisture content is then
computed as follows: