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15 views

Lesson 1

....................

Uploaded by

Aanand Jha
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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PFE-303 (Protected Cultivation and Secondary Agriculture)

Lesson 1.Importance of engineering properties of agricultural produce and its classification

IMPORTANCE OF ENGINEERING PROPERTIES OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE


• Biological materials which are especially consumed as food or feed undergo various unit operations
primary, secondary and tertiary processing, preservation, packaging, storage, distribution, retailing,
domestic storage and finally consumption. Each of these unit operations has unique characteristics
and need special tools and equipments.
• Designing and selecting such tools and equipments require information regarding various engineering
properties.
• The use of various devices and techniques in handling and processing of plants and animals has
increased the importance of the knowledge of basic engineering properties of biomaterials.
• Engineering properties of biomaterials is the attributes that affect the handling and processing of
biomaterials.
• The handling and processing can be done by various means such as mechanical, thermal, electrical,
optical and some sonic techniques and devices.
• In agricultural processing, various unit operations such as cleaning, grading, drying, storage, milling,
handling and transportation takes place. The knowledge of various properties of biomaterials is very
important in:
1) In design of machines, structures, processes and controls.
2) In analyzing and determining the efficiency of a machine or an operation.
3) In developing new consumer products of plant and animal origin.
4) In evaluating and retaining the quality of final product.
CLASSIFICATION OF FOOD PROPERTIES
There are many classifications of properties of biological materials, which can generally be
grouped under physical properties, thermal properties, mechanical properties, rheological properties,
optical properties, acoustic properties, chemical, and nutritional properties, etc.
Physical properties like size, shape, density, porosity has great implication in deciding the equipment for
screening, separation, handling and storage of materials, they also come handy in calculating the heat
transfer and mass diffusion rates. E.g. designing of air screen grain cleaner, the shape and size of the grain
determines the shape and size of screen openings, the angle of inclination and vibration amplitude and
frequency of screens. The density of the grains decides the size of screening surface. The frontal area and
related diameters and density are essential for determining the terminal velocity of the grain which is
necessary to decide about the winnowing velocity of air blast for separation of lighter materials in air

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PFE-303 (Protected Cultivation and Secondary Agriculture)

screen grain cleaners. The density and specific graivity are needed for calculating the thermal diffusivity
in heat transfer operations and in pneumatic handling of agricultural materials. Colour and appearance
characteristics are used for selective separation and storage of fruits and vegetables.
Thermal properties like specific heat, thermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity, enthalpy, surface heat
transfer coefficient, etc aids in designing thermal process and calculating thermal load for canning,
retorting, sterilization, pasteurization, blanching, cooking and extrusion process. E.g. heat treatment is
given to cereals to stimulate germination. Also heat treatment is given for killing insect pests in storage.
In all calculations of heat treatment the heat balance for heating is worked out with knowledge of specific
heat and thermal conductivity. Similarly to design a dryer, the calculations of heat requirement is most
important step. To extend the shelf life of F&Vs, lowering of storage temperature is required and for that
thermal properties are required to be known for these biomaterials.
Mechanical properties likehardness, compressive strength, impact and shear resistance affect the
behavior of the agricultural material under the applied force. Knowledge of mechanical properties is
useful for application in designing equipment for milling, handling, storage, transportation, etc.
Frictional propertieslike coefficient of friction and angle of repose are useful in designing storage bins,
discharge hoppers, chutes and conveying devices.
Aerodynamic and hydrodynamic properties are useful in designing of air and water conveying systems
like fluidized bed dryers, aspirators and pneumatic conveying system. Properties like terminal velocity is
required for pneumatic conveying and separation processes.
Optical properties like colour are used widely in deciding the quality of food thus aiding in sorting,
grading, contamination detection and food composition determination.
Acoustic properties are also useful in determining non-destructive quality determination and
pretreatment for various thermal processes and plant material extraction.
Rheological properties deals with deformation and flow of the material under action of applied force.
Time is an important parameter during application of load to the body. So, in rheology three parameters
i.e. force, deformation and time are used for expressing the mechanical behavior of the material. It is
useful in designing new product and product constituent, its stability and storability at different
conditions. Since, the viscosity of material is affected by temperature and most importantly the
constituent of material; it has direct implication on the acceptability, storability and quality of the product.

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