EFFECTS OF MOISTURE CONTENT ON SOME PHYSICAL AND MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF APRICOT FRUITS AND KERNELS

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Senior Res., Ag. Eng. Res. Institute., Ag. Res. Center, Dokki, Giza, Egypt.

Abstract

The physical and mechanical characteristics of agricultural products are the most important criteria for determining the optimal design for post-harvest systems and are very important for understanding the behavior of the product during trading, such as harvesting, transportation, sorting, settlement, packaging and storage. The main objective of this work is to study some physical and mechanical properties of apricot fruits and kernels to form an important database for this crop. This experimental work was conducted to study some physical and mechanical properties as a function of the moisture content of Egyptian apricot fruits. With an increase in the moisture content of the apricot fruits from 72.5 to 83.52%, the length increased from 41.11 to 41.95 mm, width increased from 36.98 to 37.46 mm, thickness increased from 33.97 to 34.5 mm, geometric mean diameterincreased from 37.10 to 37.51 mm and surface area increased from ​​4324.12 to 4420.22 mm2 .Sphericity increasedfrom 90.25 to 89.42%. The mass increased from 31.20 to 34.56 g and its volume increased from 28.94 to 33.62 cm3.The true density increased from 1078.09 to 1027.96 kg / m3. The porosity and the bulk density decreased from54.77 to 54.23 % and 487.6 to 470.5 kg / m3 respectively, the thousand apricot fruits Mass (M1000) increased from 30.1 to 30.5 kg. This study was conducted to study some physical and mechanical properties as a function of the moisture content of Egyptian apricot fruits. With an increase in the moisture content of the apricot kernels from 3.25% to 13.56%. The length increased from 15.1 to 15.4 mm, width increased from 10.1 to 10.4 mm, thickness increased from 5.3 mm 5.7 mm, geometric mean diameterincreased from 9.29 to 9.68 mm, surface area s1 increased from 271.13 to 294.37 mm2and surface area S2 increased from 229.005 to 248.31 mm2 , Sphericity increased from 61.52 to 62.86 %. The mass increased from 0.43 to 0.48 g and the volume increased from 0.43 to 0.475 cm3 and the true density increased from 1000 to 1010.53 kg / m3. The porosity increased from 42 to 46.55 % and the bulk density decreased from 580 to 540 kg / m3. the thousand apricot kernels Mass (M1000) increased from 1.440 to 1.482 kg. The coefficient of friction on all surfaces (wood, glass, galvanizing, fibrous glass panels) increased with increasing the moisture content for both apricot fruit and kernel.

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