Module Overview

This module will discuss and explain the different physical properties of AB materials, its
concept and importance.

Module Objectives/ Outcomes: By the end of this lesson, the student will be able to:
 To categorize and explain each of the AB materials
 To contrast the AB materials based on its use and properties
 To classify and explain each of the fundamental concepts and principles of physical
characteristics
 To determine and explain the engineering properties and discuss different physical
properties of AB materials
 To calculate the size, shape, surface and porosity of AB Materials

Lessons:
1. Physical Characteristics
2. Size of AB Materials
3. Shape of AB Materials
4. Volume of AB Materials
5. Density of AB Materials
6. Surface Area of AB Materials
7. Porosity of AB Materials

Time Frame: 2 weeks

Introduction:
This module will give information on physical characteristics of Agricultural and
Biological materials. It discusses the importance and significance of each attributes to the
processing operation. Furthermore, methods of determination for each properties will also be
discuss.

Abstraction:

LESSONS 1: PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

The physical properties such as size, shape, surface area, volume, density, porosity,
colour and appearance are important in designing particular equipment or determining the
behaviour of the product for its handling.

It is important to have an accurate estimate of the engineering parameters of a biological

and agricultural product – shape, size, volume, specific gravity, surface area and other
physical attributes. When studying physical characteristics of an Agricultural products by
considering either bulk or individual units of the material it is important to have an accurate
estimate of these properties which may be considered as engineering parameters for that
product.

It is also important to investigate the physical characteristics of

foods/agricultural materials to gain insights on how they affect in the quality and shelf-life of
each commodity. Physical properties are normally important in
many food materials handling and processing operations.
1.1. APPLICATION OF PHYSICAL PROPERTIERS:

 Size, shape and density : Fruits and vegetables grading. Food materials quality
evaluation
 Bulk density: For storage and transportation
 Shape factor and surface area: Heating and cooling process to predict the freezing and
thawing rate
 Porosity: For shrinking mechanism during drying

1.2. Physical Characteristics

 Shape
 Size
 Weight
 Volume
 Surface area
 Density
 Porosity
 Color
 Appearance
 Drag coefficient
LESSONS 2: SIZE OF AB MATERIALS

Size is an important physical attribute of foods used in screening solids to separate

foreign materials, grading of fruits and vegetables, and evaluating the quality of food
materials. Size of the particulate foods is also critical as it affects the viscosity and
dispersibility and stability of the product. In the context of postharvest operations, agro-
produce size determination is important for several reasons (Moreda et al., 2009).

 It allows the sorting of fresh market various agro produces into size groups. This
is helps in assigning market and price differentials of large and small produce, to
match consumer preferences and to allow pattern packing. Pattern packing
provides better protection of the produce, utilizes the volume in the shipping
container, owing to the higher packing density that can be achieved with
commodities of homogeneous sizes in comparison to that of jumble packing.

 Size determination is mandatory for modern or on-line fruit/ vegetables/

grain/spices density sorting, for which two size-related parameters, volume and
weight, are required.

 Size measurement is important for determining produce surface area. The latter
is also of use for quantifying the microbial population on the surface of a
foodstuff, for assessing the rates of heat, water vapor and gas transfer, or for
estimating the throughput of peeling operations.
  Fruit size can provide useful information for suitable working of some internal
quality (IQ) sensors.

 Grading of agro produce into size groups is often necessary in the food industry,
to meet the requirements of some primary and secondary processing machines,
or to assign process differentials of large and small produce.

 Shape features can be measured independently or by combining size

measurements. Hence, the determination of agro commodity size parameters
allows simple shape sorting.

 Produce can be sized according to different physical parameters, such as

diameter, length, weight, volume, circumference, projected area, or any
combination of these. It is easy to specify size for regular particles in terms of
their major dimensions like length, width and thickness or major and minor
diameter, but for irregular particles the term size must be arbitrarily specified.

Methods of Measurement of Size

1. Projected area method

 Major diameter, which is the longest dimension of the maximum projected area.
  Intermediate diameter, which is the
minimum diameter of the maximum
projected area or the maximum diameter of
the minimum projected area.

 Minor diameter, which is the shortest

dimension of the minimum projected area.

Length, width, and thickness terms are commonly used

that correspond to major, intermediate, and minor
diameters, respectively

2. Micrometer measurement
 Particle sizes are expressed in different units depending on the size range
involed.
 Coarse particle ; millimeter
 Fine particles: screen size (sieve)
 Very fine particles : micrometers or nanometers
 Ultrafine particles: area per unit mass (square
meter/grams)
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7.z
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Source data from: Stroshine , R. (1998). Physical Properties of Agricultural Materials and food products.
Purdue University
LESSONS 3: SHAPE OF AB MATERIALS

Shape describes the object in terms of a geometrical body. It is also important in heat
and mass transfer calculations, screening solids to separate foreign materials, grading of
fruits and vegetables, and evaluating the quality of food materials.

The shape of a food material is usually expressed in terms of its sphericity and aspect
ratio.

 Sphericity is the ratio of volume of solid to the volume of a sphere that has a
diameter equal to the major diameter of the object so that it can
circumscribe the solid sample.

Sphericity is an important parameter used in fluid flow and heat and

mass transfer calculations.

1/3
𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚e of solid sample
𝑆𝑝ℎericity (∅) = )
( 𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚e of circumscribed sphere

 As defined by McCabe, Smith, & Harriot, 1993, sphericity is the ratio of

surface area of a sphere having the same volume as the object to the
actual surface area of the object.
𝜋𝐷 2 6𝑉𝑝
∅ = �=
𝑆𝑝 𝐷𝑝𝑆𝑝
 Where:
Dp = equivalent diameter or nominal diameter of the
particle (m),
Sp = surface area of one particle (m2), Vp =
volume of one particle (m3).

 Aspect Ratio (Ra) is another term used to express the shape of a material. It is
calculated using the length (a) and the width
(b) of the sample as (Maduako & Faborode, 1990)

 Roundness, as defined by Mohsenin (1970), “is a measure of the sharpness of

the corners of the solid.” Curray (1951) and Mohsenin (1970) provided
the following equations for estimating roundness under
different conditions of geometry and
application:

𝑅𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑠 = 𝐴𝑝
𝐴𝑐

Where: Ap = Largest projected area of object in natural rest position A c = area of

smallest circumscribing circle
Sample Problem:

Calculate the sphericity of a cylindrical object of diameter 1.0cm and height 1.7cm

Solution:
 The volume of the object can be calculated by: V =
𝜋r2ℎ = 𝜋(0.5)2(1.7) = 1.335 𝑐𝑚3

 The volume of the sphere (rs) having the volume can be calculated
to :
4
𝜋r3 = 1.335 𝑐𝑚3
3 𝑠

⇒ rs = 0.683 cm
 The surface area of sphere of the same volume in the particle is:
𝑆 = 4𝜋r3�= 4𝜋(0.683)3 = 5.859 𝑐𝑚3

 The surface area of the particle is:

𝑆𝑝 = 2𝜋r (h + r) = 2𝜋(0.5)(1.7 + ) = 6.908 𝑐𝑚3

 Then sphericity is calculated as :

𝑆𝑠 5.859
∅= = = 0.848
𝑆𝑝 6.908
 Table 1. Shape and description of various Agricultural commodities.
SHAPE DESCRIPTION EXAMPLES
Round Approaching spheroid Sapota, cherry tomato
, pea
Oblate Flattened at the stem orange, pumpkin
end and apex
Oblong Vertical diameter greater than some apple varieties,
horizontal diameter capsicum, brinjal, rice,
wheat

Conic Tapered towered the apex ladies finger, carrot,

reddish
Ovate Egg shaped & broad at stem end Brinjal, apple and
guava.
Oblique Axis connecting stem and apex some apple varieties,
slated tomato
Obovate Inverted ovate-broad at apex Mango, papaya
Elliptical Approaching ellipsoid rice, wheat, pointed
guard etc
Truncate Having both hand squared or capsicum
flattened
Unequal One half larger than the other mango
Ribbed In cross section, sides are more or plantain, ladies finger
less angular
Regular Horizontal section approaches a orange, apple, guava
circle etc
Irregular Horizontal section depart materially mango, ladies finger,
from a circle capsicum etc.
Source: Moshenin, 1980
LESSON 4: VOLUME OF AB MATERIALS

Volume is defined as the amount of three-dimensional space occupied by an object,

usually expressed in units that are the cubes of length i.e. cm 3, in3, m3 or liquid measure;
liters or gallons. It affects consumer acceptance, can be calculated from the measured
dimensions or by using various methods suchs as liquid, gas, or solid displacement.
Volume is an important quality attribute in the food industry and is inversely correlated
with texture.

 Solid volume (Vs ) is the volume of the solid material (including water)
excluding any interior pores that are filled with air. It can be determined
by the gas displacement method in which the gas is capable of
penetrating all open pores up to the diameter of the gas molecule.
• Apparent volume (Vapp) is the volume of a substance including all pores
within the material (internal pores). Apparent volume of regular
geometriescan be calculated using the
characteristic dimensions. Apparent volume of irregularly shaped
samples may be determined by solid or liquid displacement methods.

• Bulk volume (Vbulk) is the volume of a material when packed or stacked in bulk.
It includes all the pores enclosed within the material (internal pores) and
also the void volume outside the boundary of individual particles when
stacked in bulk (external pores)
Methods of Measurement of Volume

Volume of solids can be determined by using the following methods:

 Volume can be calculated from the characteristics dimensions in the case of the
objects with regular shape.
 Experimentally by liquid, gas or solid displacement methods. In this method,
volume of food materials can be measured by pycnometer (specific gravity bottles)
or graduated cylinders.
 Volume can be measured by the image processing method

LESSON 5: DENSITY OF AB MATERIALS

Density (ρ ) of a material is the amount of that material occupying a certain space

and is expressed in units of mass per unit volume.
Quality of food materials can be assessed by measuring their densities. Density data
of foods are required in the separation processes, such as centrifugation and
sedimentation and in pneumatic and hydraulic transport of powder and particulates.
Measuring the density of liquid is required to determine the power required for
pumping.
𝑀𝑎𝑠𝑠
ρ =
𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚e

Particle density/true density is the mass divided by the volume of the particle
alone. Density of solid material constituting the true volume occupied by the
material, excluding any interior pores that are filled with air (blind and through
pores).
 Bulk density is the mass of a group of individual particles divided by the space
occupied by the entire mass, including the air space. Bulk density (ρB) is the
density of a material when packed or stacked in bulk. The bulk density of
packed materials depends on the geometry, size, and surface properties of
individual particles (Lewis, 1987).

Methods of Measurement of Density

 The density of liquids can be determined by using a pycnometer.
 Liquid density can also be measured by placing a hydrometer in a breaker filled
with liquid sample.
 The density of liquid is calculated from the ratio of weight of the hydrometer to
the volume of the displaced liquid.

LESSON 6: SURFACE AREA OF AB MATERIALS

In designing a conveying equipment, cleaning and separation

equipment determination of the surface area of the product is important.

Some of the methods used for measuring surface area are:

 contact printing the surface on a light sensitive paper and measuring the area by
a planimeter
 tracing the area on a graph paper and counting the squares
 use of a photographic projector
 light interception method and
 use of an air flow planimeter which measure the area as a function of the surface
obstruction to flow of air.
LESSON 7: POROSITY OF AB MATERIALS

Porosity is the percentage of the total volume occupied by the air.

It is the measure of void space between the materials.

Porosity allows gases, such as air, and liquids to flow through a mass of particles
referred to as a packed bed in drying and distillation operations.

Is a physical property characterizing the texture and the quality of dry and intermediate
moisture foods. Total porosity of particulate materials includes the voids within and among
the particles.

Air or Void Volume

Porosity (ϵ) =
Total Volume

Or

Porosity depends on:

 Shape
 Dimension/Size
 Roughness of grain surface
REFERENCES:

Characteristics, P., Properties, M., Properties, T., & Properties, E. (n.d.). Physical , Optical and
Electrical Properties of Food material.
Luther, R., Suter, D. A., & Technology, P. E. (2005). Physical Properties of Food Materials. 23–
52.
Nelson, S. O. (1973). Electrical Properties of Agricultural Products - a Critical Review.
Transactions of the American Society of Agricultural Engineers, 16(2), 384–400.
https://doi.org/10.13031/2013.37527
Properties and Characteristics of Agricultural Materials Physical Properties of Agricultural
Products : (n.d.). 1–33.
Properties, E. (n.d.). • Physical and mechanical properties of agricultural materials . • Thermal
properties of agricultural materials . • Moisture equilibration . • Air movement . • Drying
theory – thin layer and deep bed drying . • Design of drying systems . • Storage princip.
1–37.
https://steemit.com/steemstem/@sogless/properties-of-biological-materials- difference-
between-an-agricultural-engineer-a-mechanical-engineer-in- machine-design)
http://ecoursesonline.iasri.res.in/mod/page/view.php?id=1007
Application:

Why do we need to consider the physical attributes of the AB materials during processing operati

What are the different physical properties of AB

materials? importance.
Discuss eachpropertyandits

MODULE ASSESSMENT

Direction: Answer the following questions. Write your answer in a clean bond paper.

Part 1:
1. Discuss the relationship of each physical properties (size, shape, volume, density
and porosity) of agricultural and biological materials to process design and quality
control.

Part 2: Laboratory Exercises

Laboratory Exercise 2: Physical Characteristics of Fruits and

Vegetables

Laboratory Exercise 3: Physical Characteristics of Grains