FEM-based simulation of the mechanical behavior of grapefruit under compressive loading

Abstract

Bruising in fresh crops is a major challenge of the horticulture industry, which can cause quality degradation and losses throughout the pre-harvest to the post-harvest stages. A visual understanding and/or detailed description of the mechanical behavior of fruits under different loading scenarios using analytical and physical experiments are complicated topics. This is particularly more complicated in fruits with a thicker peel. Vulnerability of grapefruits to mechanical damage under an external compression force was predicted in this study using the finite element method. The simulation results showed that the internal texture reach the yield point at 9.55 and 13.7 mm of longitudinal and transverse displacements, respectively, although the peel showed no sign of damage under these displacement values. However, according to the experimental data, the samples needed 29.47 and 36.55 mm displacements at the both longitudinal and transverse directions before reaching the complete yield and failure limits. Based on Newton’s second law, a total of 25 and 31 grapefruits in the longitudinal and transverse directions were needed to create the forces (60 and 75 N) required for developing the yield displacements in the fruit pulp. Finite element results showed that the method is capable of contributing to the prediction and knowledge of internal mechanical damages of grapefruits and equally other horticultural products.