PROPERTIES OF

AB MATERIALS
LECTURE
8:00 AM - 11:00 AM

LERJUN M. PENAFLOR, PHD

ASSISTANT PROFFESSOR 4
 OBJECTIVE
• enables ABE students to determine different
engineering properties of agricultural and biological
materials;
• explain the importance of engineering properties of
agricultural and biological materials to agricultural
processing; and
• identify different methods in determining or
measuring these properties.
.
INTRODUCTION TO
AB MATERIALS
• all about the different properties of agricultural
materials such as fruits, vegetables and grains.

• also the introduction to engineering properties of

biological materials, the classification and
characteristics of the different properties, including
food properties, food consumption, quality, safety
and regulations.

• discusses the application of the various AB material

properties in the harvesting, post-harvest handling,
processing and storage of products
 Agricultural and
Biosystems Material

Agricultural based materials or residue

of biological - including plant ond animal -
origins, used in its natural state or as
inputs into the manufucature of
commercial or industrial food and/ or
non- food products.
AB MATERIALS OR NOT
 FOOD
PROPERTIES
• Food consumption pattern is affected by cultural
practices, climate and in many cases personal choice.
• Food is considered as a mean for psychological and
emotional fulfillment and its relation to divinity is not
exaggerating as this is the basic requirement for any
life to exist.
• The quality characteristics are often judged by
instrumental methods of measurement and by
sensory panel, where trained personnel act as human
instrument.
Food laws and safety regulations are essential to
provide consumer food that is safe to consume and cater
the needs of various sections. Allergenicity of some
naturally occurring chemicals from plant and animal
sources, host metabolism, microbial contamination, non-
biological contamination such as glass, metal pieces,
chemicals entering into the food chain from various steps
of processing also pose great risk to human safety and
well being.
Sensory descriptive tests are Sensory evaluation is a scientific discipline used to
evoke, measure, analyze, and interpret reactions to
among the most sophisticated characteristics of food and materials as they are
perceived by sensory attributes
tools used by sensory scientists
and involve the discrimination and
description of both the appearance aroma
qualitative and quantitative
sensory components
texture/
flavor
consistency

sound:
cruchiness or
crispiness
 Application of
AB MATERIALS
The application of various engineering properties like
physical, frictional, aerodynamic, thermal, optical,
dielectric, electrical, acoustic, rheological and
textural properties in the harvesting, post harvest
handling, processing, storage, distribution,
consumption and how it affects consumer’s perception
of quality and safety.
 Classification of
AB MATERIALS
There are many classifications of properties of biological
materials, which can generally be grouped under physical
properties, mechanical properties, rheological properties,
textural properties, electrical and dielectric properties, optical
properties, acoustic properties, chemical, and nutritional
properties etc. A more realistic approach was compiled by
Rahman & McCarthy (1999) is presented here:
 I. PHYSICAL AND PHYSICO-
CHEMICAL PROPERTIES

F. Physico-chemical a. Mechanical properties

constan
F
A
E. Electromagnetic
E b. Thermal Properties
properties

B
D
C c. Thermodynamic
properties

d. Mass transfer properties

 II. KINETIC PROPERTIES
A. Quality kinetic constants
B. Microbial growth, decline and death kinetic
constants
 III. SENSORY PROPERTIES

Color Appearance
01 04 Tactile properties

Textual Properties 02 05 Odor

Sound 03 06 Taste
IV. Health Properties

A. Positive health properties

Nutritional composition
Medical properties
Functional properties

B. Negative health properties

Toxic at any concentration
Toxic after critical concentration level
Excessive or unbalanced intake
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES:
The knowledge of some important physical properties
such as shape, size, volume, surface area, thousand grain
weights, density, and porosity of different grains has
great implication for the design of various separating,
screening, handling, storing and drying systems.
The function of many types of machines is influenced
decisively by the size and shape of the materials
participating.
The shape and size of the materials can be determined by
graphical methods, dimensional measurement, projected
area method, electronic inspection systems.
Density is used to separate materials with different
densities or specific gravities.
- Separation of properly matured peas can b e
separated from the immature and infected ones by water
flotation methods.
- Grain bed with low porosity will have greater
resistance to water vapor escape during the drying
process, which may lead to higher power to drive the
aeration fans.
 - Cereal grain densities have been of interest in
breakage susceptibility and hardness studies.
- It plays an important role in other applications that
include the design of silos and storage bins and the
maturity and quality of paddy, which are essential to
grain marketing.
- The resistance of bulk grain to airflow is in part a
function of the porosity and the kernel size.
AERO AND HYDRO-DYNAMIC PROPERTIES:
• The aerodynamic properties and hydrodynamic properties like terminal
velocity and drag coefficient of agricultural products are important and
required for the designing of air/ hydro conveying systems and the
separation equipment.
• In the handling and processing of agricultural products, air is often used as a
carrier for transport or for separating the desirable products from unwanted
materials, therefore the aerodynamic properties, such as terminal velocity
and drag coefficient, are needed for air conveying and pneumatic separation
of materials.
• As the air velocity, greater than terminal velocity, lifts the particles to allow
greater fall of a particle, the air velocity could be adjusted to a point just
below the terminal velocity.
• The fluidization velocity for granular material and settling velocity are also
calculated for the body immersed in viscous fluid.
 APPLICATION
TO AGRICULTURAL
PRODUCTS
Separation of foreign materials from seeds, grains
potato, blue berry
Conveying and handling of grains, chopped forage small &
large fruits
Hydraulic handling of apples, cherries, mango& potatoes
etc
Examples:
Working principle of Aspirator:- Under steady state
condition, where terminal velocity has been achieved, if
the particles density is greater than fluid density, the
particles motion will be downward. If particles density is
smaller than the fluid density, the particle will be rise.
 OPTICAL PROPERTIES:
Light transmittance and reflectance properties of agricultural commodities are
widely used for deciding the quality of product thus aiding in sorting, grading,
contamination detection, food composition determination, maturity, surface
colour and blemish determination.

The use of hyperspectral, multispectral, infrared imaging and computer vision

system have enabled even determination of moisture and other chemical
composition, contamination of agro commodities to greater satisfaction of
consumer and trader and reduced the manual inspection, which might be
subjected to error due to fatigue.
 FRICTIONAL PROPERTIES:

Frictional properties such as angle of repose and coefficient of

friction are important in designing equipment for solid flow and
storage structures and the angle of internal friction between seed
and wall in the prediction of seed pressure on walls.
The coefficient of static friction plays also an important role in
transports (load and unload) of goods and storage facilities. It is
important in filling flat storage facility when grain is not piled at a
uniform bed depth but rather is peaked.
Coefficient of friction is important in designing storage bins, hoppers,
chutes, screw conveyors, forage harvesters, and threshers.
 THERMAL PROPERTIES:

These properties are involved in almost every food processing

operation.

The most important thermal properties in food processing, such as:

specific heat capacity (Cp), thermal conductivity(k), and thermal
diffusivity(a).

Application :
Extrusion cooking, Drying, Sterilization, Cooking etc.
Thermal imaging: Infrared imaging for food quality determination
 ACOUSTIC PROPERTIES:
Acoustic properties of biomaterial describes how the biological cell
recats to sound waves, which carry enough energy through photons
and capable of bring change in the product.

Acoustic properties are long been used in medical diagnosis; its’ use
in food processing and in detecting the imperfections in agro
commodities is gaining momentum.

Moreover, the effect of high intensity sound waves on living cell also
are being explored and effectively used in homogenizing liquid
sample, determining non-destructive quality, extraction of plant
materials and as pretreatment for drying and dehydration process.
 ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES:
• Some electrical properties which are of importance in agro
processing are electrical conductance, resistance, impedance.
• Electrical conductance or capacitance has been used for
de te rm ining the m o istu re co nte nt o f g rain. Ele ctro static
separation of grains is also used for separating grains, based on
the ability of the grain to hold electrostatic charge.
• Electrical conductivity of the grain decides the ability of the
material to hold electrostatic charge. Recently ohmic heating has
been in use for drying, pasteurization, blanching and other
thermal processing of foods, based on resistance heating.
• Ohmic processing, sometimes described as resistive heating,
consists of passing mains alternating current directly through a
conductive food, which in turn leads to heat generation.
 RHEOLIGICAL PROPERTIES:

Knowledge of the rheological and mechanical properties of various

food systems is important in the design of flow processes for quality
control, in predicting storage and stability measurements, and in
understanding and designing texture.

The rheological behavior under limited deformation has been widely

used to obtain information on the structure and viscoelasticity of
materials.
 APPLICATION
• Design / select equipment such as pumps, pipe
lines, extruders, mixers, heat exchangers etc.
• Rheological behavior relates to food
texture and sensory data
• To determine ingredient functionality in
product development
• Shelf life testing
• To obtain some information about atomic and
molecular scale phenomena
• To obtain constitutive relations
 TEXTUAL PROPERTIES:
• Texture is one of the most important quality
characteristics of foods. Foods have different textural
properties.
• These differences are caused by inherent differences
due to the variety difference, differences due to
maturity, and differences caused by processing
methods.
• Food texture can be evaluated by sensory or
instrumental methods.
THANK YOU
Do you have any questions?