Fruit and vegetables are subjected to complex dynamic stresses in the transportation environment. During a long journey from the production area to markets, there is always some degree of vibration present. Vibration inputs are transmitted from the ve...
Fruit and vegetables are subjected to complex dynamic stresses in the transportation environment. During a long journey from the production area to markets, there is always some degree of vibration present. Vibration inputs are transmitted from the vehicle through the packaging to the fruit. Inside, these cause sustained bouncing of fruits against each other and container wall. These steady state vibration input may cause serious fruit injury, and this damage is particularly severe whenever the fruit inside the package is free to bounce, and is vibrated at its resonance frequency. The determination of the resonance frequencies of the fruit and vegetables may help the packaging designer to determine the proper packaging system providing adequate protection for the fruit, and to understand the complex interaction between the components of fruit when they relate to expected transportation vibration inputs. Instrumentation and technologies are described for determining the vibration response characteristics of the fruits with frequency range 3 to 150 Hz. The computer program for controlling the vibration exciter and the function generator and for measuring the vibration response characteristics of the fruits was developed. The resonance frequency of the pear ranged from 64.5 to 72.2 Hz and the amplitude at resonance was between 1.78 and 2.21 G-rms. The resonance frequency and amplitude at resonance decreased with the increase of the sample mass, and they were slightly affected by mechanical properties such as bioyield deformation and rupture deformation. Regression analysis was performed among the relatively high correlated parameters from the results of correlation coefficient analysis.