Characterization of green peppers based on dynamic repose angle

Abstract

Virtualization of machining process, is of great significance, for the design and research of equipment to improve food quality and safety. Green pepper (GP), a biological origin fruit, displays promising cosmetic, spices and drug values, but its processing is labor and time intensive, which urgently needs equipment to improve productivity. Therefore, this investigation taking the dynamic angle of repose obtained from rotating drum assays as indicator, to explore suitable material and interaction properties for the discrete element method (DEM) to re-produce the processing visually. Primarily, ranges of these properties were experimentally measured. Centrally, values of these properties were categorized and reasonably determined via a set of simulations involving the Plackett-Burman (PB), Steepest Ascent (SA), and Central Combination Design (CCD). Interestingly, the PB demonstrated that coefficients of static friction between particle-steel (CoSP−s) and coefficients of friction and restitution between particle-particle (CoRP−P; CoSP−P; CoLP−P) were significant, their optimal ranges (0.59–0.64, 0.15–0.30, 0.20–0.44, 0–0.05) and values (0.590, 0.299, 0.200, 0.034) were sequentially selected by the SA and CCD respectively. Collectively, suitable properties were determined as the selected and mean values of the significant and insignificant properties, respectively. Importantly, values of these properties have been confirmed via triplicate independent verification simulations.