Identification of Apple Fruit-Skin Constitutive Laws by Full-Field Methods Using Uniaxial Tensile Loading

Area of Science:

• Agricultural Engineering
• Materials Science
• Biophysics

Background:

• Apple skin's mechanical properties are crucial for fruit preservation and storage.
• Understanding apple skin's behavior is vital for optimizing post-harvest handling and reducing economic losses.

Purpose of the Study:

• To experimentally and numerically evaluate the mechanical behavior of apple skin under uniaxial tensile loading.
• To compare the mechanical responses of three distinct apple cultivars.
• To fit hyperelastic models to experimental data for predicting apple skin deformation.

Main Methods:

• Utilized digital image correlation (DIC) technique for precise strain measurement.
• Employed a specially devised inverse strategy to determine mechanical properties.
• Applied Yeoh's hyperelastic model to characterize non-linear deformation behavior.

Main Results:

• Reconstructed stress-strain curves revealed significant variations in mechanical responses among apple cultivars.
• Identified cultivar-specific differences in elastic properties and non-linear deformation.
• Demonstrated that apple skin's mechanical properties vary based on cultivar composition and structure.

Conclusions:

• Apple skin's mechanical properties differ significantly across cultivars, impacting fruit handling and storage.
• Developed insights for creating mathematical models of apple tissue mechanics.
• Provided crucial data for enhancing the economics of the agri-food industry through improved post-harvest management.