PROTECTED CULTIVATION AND

POST HARVEST TECHNOLOGY

(ASAE3204)
ENGINEERING PROPERTIES-
(Physical And Thermal Properties)
Physical Characteristics

1. Size
2. Shape
3. Weight
4. Volume
5. Density
6. Porosity
7. Specific Gravity
8. Surface area
 APPLICATION
 In design of specific machine or analysis of product behaviour during
handling and processing operations.

 Separation of seeds and grains from undesirable material.

 Fruits and vegetables are usually graded depending on size, shape,

and density. Impurities in food materials are separated by density
differences between impurities and foods.

 Conveying of solid materials (density, size, shape).

Knowledge of the bulk density of food materials is necessary to
estimate floor space during storage and transportation.

 Sorting, grading and for capacity determination of machines and

during storage.

 When mixing, transportation, storing and packaging particulate

matter, it is important to know the properties of bulk material
Fig1. shows a sorting machine that separates on
the basis of shape and size.

Fig2. shows a cartoon that is used for storage and

transportation
 SIZE
It relates to dimension of the commodity.

 It is used in screening solids to separate foreign materials, grading and

sorting of food materials.

 It helps in assigning market and price differentials of large and small

produce, to match consumer preferences and to allow pattern packing

 Mandatory for modern or on-line fruit/ vegetables/ grain/spices density

sorting, for which two size-related parameters, volume and weight, are
required.
 Methods of measurement

1. Projected method: Photographic enlarger

2. Micrometer method: Micrometer and slide calipers
3. Electronic devices: Image analysis (Precise method)
The size of spherical particles like peas is easily defined by a single characteristic
such as its diameter.

The size of non-spherical objects like wheat kernels, pears may be described by
multiple length measurements.

SI units for particle size are micrometers (or microns) or millimeters depending on
the size range

For a particulate material to be considered powder, its approximate median size

should be less than 1 mm.
 SHAPE
• Shape describes the object in terms of a geometrical body.

• The shape of a food material is usually expressed in:

Roundness
Sphericity
Aspect ratio
Ellipsoid ratio and
Slenderness ratio
Roundness is a measure of the sharpness of the corners of the solid.
• Roundness = Ap/Ac
• where: Ap = largest projected area of object in natural rest position
• Ac = area of smallest circumscribing circle

Sphericity expresses the characteristic shape of a solid object relative to

that of a sphere of the same volume .
Sphericity = De/Dc
• Sphericity = (Vo / Vc) 1/3 = {(lwt)1/3 / l}(For triaxial Ellipsoid)
i.e. Ratio of Geometric mean diameter to major diameter
• Vo= Volume of object
• Vc= Volume of smallest circumscribed sphere
where: De = diameter of a sphere of the same volume as the object
Dc = diameter of smallest circumscribed circle
Slenderness ratio = Ratio of length of rice to width of rice. usually
used for grading of rice.

Aspect ratio = The aspect ratio of a geometric shape is the ratio of its
sizes in different dimensions.

Ellipsoid ratio = Major diameter : minor diameter

Prolate spheroid which is formed when an
ellipse rotates about its major axis.
• A prolate spheroid is a spheroid in which the
polar axis is greater than the equatorial
diameter. e.g. lemon, lime, grape.
Oblate Prolate
Oblate spheroid is formed when an ellipse
rotates about its minor axis.
• An oblate spheroid is a rotationally symmetric
ellipsoid having a polar axis shorter than the
diameter of the equatorial circle e.g. Orange,
pumpkin, lentil (masur dal)
Right circular cone or cylinders is formed when
a frustum rotates about its axis e.g. carrot and
okra.
VOLUME AND SURFACE
AREA OF DIFFERENT
SHAPE
 Ovate ellipsoid Oblong obovate

obovoid Prolate Oblique Conic

Elliptical

Truncate
 VOLUME
• Volume is defined as the amount of three-dimensional space occupied by an
object. In the SI system, the unit of volume is m3.
• Bulk volume: The volume of substance includes all pores within the material
(internal pores) and also the void volume outside the boundary of individual
particles when stacked in bulk (external pores).
• Particle volume: This volume is the actual volume of the solid granular
material, which is devoid of intergranular spaces.
• Solid volume :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.
• SHRINKAGE: This is the reduction in volume or geometric dimensions during
processing.

• EXPANSION: It happens when post-processing volume is larger than initial volume.

DENSITY
It of two types:
Bulk density and Particle density
POROSITY

• It is the percentage of air (pore space) between the particles compared to a unit bulk
volume of particles.

Porosity = [(PD – BD) * 100] / PD

• Porosity depends on: Shape ,Dimension/ Size, Roughness of grain surface

NOTE:
• Beds with low porosity are more resistant to fluid flow and more difficult to
dry, or cool.
• With high porosity, drying/cooling is faster, and power required is low.
SPECIFIC GRAVITY
• It is a ratio, expressed decimally, of the weight of a substance to the weight of
an equal volume of a substance chosen as a standard, both substances at the
same temperature.
• Water is used as the standard for the specific gravities of liquids and solids.
• The most useful standard for gases is hydrogen, although sometimes air is
used
 SURFACE AREA
1. Using planimeter,
2. Coating method,
3. Wrapping
4. Peeling method,
5. By image analysis

For fruits and vegetables:

a. Peeling
b. Coating
c. Wrapping
THERMAL PROPERTIES
 METHODS OF HEAT TRANSFER
• Conduction: is heat transfer between part of the same material or
different material which are adjacent to one another.
• Convection: is heat transfer from one material to another via a
medium, such as air or water.
• Radiation: is heat transfer without any medium and through
electromagnetic waves, such as between the Sun and the Earth.
In food processing, heat transfer is usually a combination of
conduction and convection.
IMPORTANT THERMAL PROPERTIES

1. Heat capacity
2. Specific heat
3. Thermal conductivity
4. Thermal diffusivity
5. Surface heat transfer co-efficient
6. Latent heat of fusion and vapourization
7. Heat of respiration
8. Co-efficient of thermal expansion
9. Thermal Emissivity
 Heat capacity
Heat capacity may be defined as the thermal capacity, is the amount of heat
required to change a substance's temperature by one degree. In SI units, heat
capacity (C ) is expressed in (J) per kelvin (K).
It is the Ratio of heat supplied (Q) to the corresponding temp rise (Δt )
C=Q/Δt

Specific heat
Specific heat (cp) or mass heat capacity is the heat required to increase the
temperature of one unit of mass by one degree.
The specific heat is expressed in kJ/(kg-K).

Q= m(t2-t1)Cp
 THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY
Thermal conductivity is a measure of the ease with which heat flows through a
material. It is defined as the “heat flow through the material per unit of time (Q),
the cross sectional area of the material through which the heat flows (A), and the
temperature difference per unit thickness of the conducting material (dT/dx)”.
Q = k A (dT/dx)

ENTHALPY
• Total heat content of a material per unit mass.
• Enthalpy change is defined by the following equation:
H2– H1 = m cp (T2 – T1) + m Xw L
Where:
• H2–H1 = Enthalpy difference, m = Mass of product
• Xw= Water fraction
• T2 – T1 = Temperature difference, L = Latent heat
 THERMAL DIFFUSIVITY
• In transient heat transfer, where temperature varies with time and location, the
relevant thermal property is thermal diffusivity.
• Thermal diffusivity (α, m2/s) is a combination of three basic thermal
properties, defined as “The rate at which heat is diffused out of the material.
• This is a quantity derived from conductivity, which is a measure of its ability
to exchange thermal energy with its surroundings”.
• Mathematically ,
• Thermal diffusivity = Thermal conductivity/(density × specific heat)
or
.
α = k/ρ Cp
CONVECTIVE HEAT TRANSFER COEFFICIENT

• The thermal property associated with convection heat transfer is the

convective heat transfer coefficient (h); it also goes by the names
surface heat transfer coefficient, unit surface conductance or film
coefficient.

• It is defined as the “Rate of heat transfer per degree of temp

difference across the solid fluid interface per unit of the solid’s surface
area”.
Q = h A ΔT
 Latent heat (L)
• It is the heat that is exchanged with a material during a phase change, when the
heat exchanged does not result in a change in the temperature of the material.
• The units for latent heat are kJ/kg. Latent heat is usually subdivided into latent
heat of freezing and latent heat of vaporization.

Latent heat of freezing

• It is the 335 kJ that 1 kg of water releases while maintaining its temperature at
0°C when changing from the liquid to the solid state.

Latent heat of vaporization

• It is represented by the 2257 kJ that 1 kg of water must absorb while
temperature remains constant at 100 °C to evaporate from liquid into vapor.
 HEAT OF RESPIRATION
• Fruit and vegetable products are living organisms. To maintain their life
processes, they must consume energy. They do this by a “combustion” process
that “burns” sugar to produce CO2 and heat.
• The heat produced by this process is commonly called the heat of respiration.

COEFFICIENT OF THERMAL EXPANSION

• When a material is heated, it leads to density difference. Solids mostly expand
in response to heating and contract on cooling.
• This response to temperature change is expressed as its coefficient of thermal
expansion.
B = ΔV / (V * ΔT)
ΔV Change in volume,
ΔT: Change in Temp
 THERMAL EMISSIVITY

• The emissivity coefficient (ε) is the ratio of total emissive power of any body to
the total emissive power of a black body at the same temperature.

• If an hot object is radiating energy to its cooler surroundings the net radiation
heat loss rate can be expressed as :
• Where:
Q= rate heat transfer Q = A ε σ(Th4 - Tc4)
A= surface area
ε = 1 (black body) and <1 (real object)
σ = Stefan Boltzmann constant
Th & Tc = Absolute temperature of hot and cold body respectively
 ASSIGNMENT NO. 8
a. Liquid displacement method
b. Gas displacement method
c. Application of thermal properties