Abstract
The analysis of static forces is essential in the storage of agricultural products because these forces are applied in fruits, vegetables, or grains that can lead to their permanent deformation. This mechanical damage increases the product waste. Given that the potato tuber is surrounded by other tubers in the storage, then every tuber is pressurized from all sides or so‐called triaxial stress. To measure the deformation of the specimens, a device was developed to conduct uniaxial and triaxial creep tests on the viscoelastic agricultural products (e.g., potatoes). Accordingly, the creep experiments were performed on potato samples for 5, 30, 60, 120, 240, 360, 420, and 480 min under the constant load of 72.5 N at 3 and 11 replications via uniaxial and triaxial tests, respectively. The results showed that in the creep test, the loading time was significant on the deformation of the specimens at the 0.05 level of probability. Triaxial test showed that the tuber deformation and strain of top layer were more than the middle and bottom layers. The results showed that the deformation of tubers under uniaxial test was more than triaxial one.
Highlights
The damages, caused by the static loads on the stored agricultural products, are of great importance, as they affect the fruits, vegetables, or grains
Potato deformation using uniaxial test was 33% more that potato strain at top layer compared to triaxial test
Triaxial creep test showed that applying loading force on top layer maximum deformation occurred at top layer and deformation rate decreased in lower layers
Summary
The damages, caused by the static loads on the stored agricultural products, are of great importance, as they affect the fruits, vegetables, or grains. Some types of fruits and vegetables, such as apples, potatoes, tomatoes, are rapidly damaged in such conditions. Forces, transmitted from one fruit to another in a crop, can lead to permanent deformation at the points of contact on the fruit or vegetable, and cause mechanical damage (Masoumi, Tabatabaeefar, & Borghaee, 2005). The reduction of fruits and vegetables waste will require modifying the production structure of these crops from farm to storage during harvest, transportation, and marketing. It is an effective way to improve the technical knowledge of producers, fruit and vegetable managers, retailers, and consumers in this direction (Rahemi, 1994)
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