Potatoes Physical Properties Researching in Mechanized Harvesting (Agria Variety)

Negar.Ahangarnezhad1*, Morteza.Malekyarand2, Maryam.Shirmohamadi3, Gholam R.Chegini4 ,Reza.Alimardan5, Amir.Zaki6

2

Member of Shahryar Agricultural University, Karaj, Iran. Member of faculty IHEC, Instituted of Techniacl & Vocational Higher Education of Jahade Agricultural. Tehran, Iran. 3 CPME- Queensland University of Technology. Brisbane. Australia. 4 Department of Agrotechnology,College of Abouraihan University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran. 5 Agricultural Machinery Engineering Department,University of Tehran, Karaj,Iran. 6 Member of Shahryar Agricultural University, Karaj, Iran. *Corresponding author E-mail: Negarahangarnezhad@yahoo.com

Abbreviatons L-length of potato; W-width of potato ; T-thickness ; g geometric mean diameter, p equivalant diameter ; a arithmetic diameter ; t true volumic mass ; Sp -sphericity ; M-potato mass ; V-volume of potato ; PA1 -first projected area; PA2 -second projected area ; PA3 third projected area ; CPA- criteria projected area ; S- surface area ; R a - aspect ratio. Abstract Potato in most of industrial and development and developing countries has an importance status among agricultural crops. Some physical properties of potato (Agria) were determined and compared. These properties are necessary for the design of equipments for harvesting, sorting, separating and packing. physical characteristics such as: average potato length, width, thickness, the geometric, arithmetic and equivalent mean diameter, projected area, surface aria, sphericity percentage, aspect ratio, potato mass, volume were studied. Regression models for volume, mass, surface area with dimensions potato were with R2 = 0.91 , R2 = 0.86 , R2 = 0.99 respictively. Comparision potato real volume with volume of standard geometric shapes, shown high correlation between them. Coefficient of determination real volume with Oval was R2 = 0.86, with oblate spheroidwas R2 = 0.79 and Prolate spheroid was R2 = 0.78 . Keyword: physical property, potato, packaging , Agria variety.

Introduction Diversity of potato varieties in Iran is due to diversity of weathers and consumers elegance (Tabatabaeefar et al.,2000). The most popular varieties of potato we can refer to Agria, Granola, Maradona, Marfona, Cozima and Hermis. In Iran often Agria variety is planted that is allocated 85% of planted areas. First this variety was exported from Holand to all parts the world. It's shape is oval and stretched. Tubers with between 35 to 55 mm are used as seed and with the temperature of +3 can be stored up to 6 months. Varieties with the diameter more than 55 mm are used for eating and production other products such as starch, flour, bread, glue, Alcohol, make up things, cookie, conserve, chips, glucose and etc and can be stored for 6 months in +4 to +5 temperature. In the process of design and Fabrication harvesting machine, knowing about crop physical properties will help the designer to design

good and suitable function machine. Knowing about properties of agricultural crops lets to design new machines and many industrial process with quality properties of the improved work and so damage will decrease and profit will increase. So agricultural crops mechanic has special importance (Sistler et al., 1983). Among them methods of optometric and video are newest methods of measuring properties. The goal of this research is measuring physical properties of Agria variety that are effective in potato mechanized harvesting and packing. Knowing physical dimensions and rolling and sliding friction coefficient of potato are necessary in good design a packaging mechanism and sorting. According to different tests potato specific mass for different varieties change from 1.07 to 1.15 (gr/3 ) (Mohsenin,1986). Also was observed that potato rolling friction coefficient is 0.55 and its sliding friction coefficient is 0.8 (Klenin et al.,1970). Up to now there has been many researches about measuring physical properties of agricultural crops with using mechanical and digital methods. For example measuring physical properties of potato [Tabatabaeefar,2002; Eshaghbigi,2006; Gorjian et al.,2008]. Determining size and shape of sweet potato[Wright Malcom E., 1986], determining physical properties of cherry (Vursavus et al., 2006), measuring physical properties of apple [Kheiralipour et al., 2008], measuring physical properties of apricot (Mirzaee et al.,2009), determining physical properties of Agricultural and Food Material (Stroshine et al.,1994). Determining the surface area some parts of plant such as tobaccos leaf and fruits surface is used in transferring and producing agricultural crops. Printing objects area in sensitive paper to light and obtaining its area by planimeter, image of surface objects on plaid paper and counting its squares, using airflow planimeter in measuring amount of areas resistance against airflow are methods of measuring objects area (Mohsenin,1986;Safwat,1971). Irregular shape of most agricultural crops like potato, has caused its volume determined by water displacement.The volume of tubers are determined by similarity method withvolume of geometric shapes such as prolate spheroid and oblate spheroid. The criteria of describing shape and size with standard shapes are used for description fruits and vegetables. Materials and methods The 150 potatos of Agria varity in Iran were randomly hand-picked in autumn season from an orchard located at Horticultural Rerarch Center, Faculty of Agriculture ,University of Tehran. Then were transferrd in the Biophsical laboratory of University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran. The patatos was kept in cold storage at 4 untile test. Potato mas(M) was determined with an electronic balance with 0.01gr sensitivity. To determine volume of each potato (V) a water container put on the scale, then potato was floated in it and mass of displaced water was determined. Water temperature was kept in 25 . Volume of displaced water or potato volume was calculated by using the following formula (Mohsenin,1986): V=
Ww w

(1) is 0.9971(gr/3 ) And true volumic mass defined by following

Water volumic mass in 25 formula : t (gr/cm3 ) =

M V

(2)

Where: Ww -displaced water mass( ), w -water volumic mass(gr/cm3), t tuber true volumic mass(gr/cm3), M-potato mass(gr), V-potato volume (cm3). Because of importace of shape was studied with standard geometric shapes. Prolate spheroid create of rotation an oval around its small axis (Mohsenin,1986 ; Stroshine et al,1994) Volume of the prolate spheroid and oblate spheroid are determined by using the following formula respectively:

V = 3 a b2 V = 3 a2 b
4

(3) (4)

Where: a and b are half of main axis an prolate spheroid. To determine the average size of the potatos, three linear dimensions , namely length L, width W, and thichness T, were measured by using a digital caliper with accuracy of 0.01 mm. The diameters were calculated by considering Eqs (5), (6) and (7) respectively (Mohsenin,1986) : dg = = da =
3

LWT L
W +T 2 4

(5) (6) (7)

L+W+T 3

Where: g Geometric mean diameter, p equivalant diameter, a arithmetic diameter (all in mm). The surface area of the potato was calculated by using following formula(Mohsenin,1986): S = (dg)2 Where: S- The Surface area (mm2). The sphericity Sp % , defined as the ratio of surface area of sphere having the same volume as that of fruit to the surface area of the fruit, was determined by using the following formula (Mohsenin,1986): Sp =
3

(8)

LWT L

(9)

The aspect ratio, Ra was calculated by Omobuwajo et al., 1991: Ra =

W L

(10)

Where: W-width and L- length (all in mm). Also potatos picture was taken by Area Measurment System Delta T-England apparatus shown in (Fig.1) Then projected area (PA1 , PA1 , PA3 ) in three perpendicular directions of the potatos were calculated by applying the software written in Visual Basic. And criteria projected area (CPA) is defined as (Mohsenin,1986): CPA =
+ +

(11)

Where PA1 , PA2 and PA3 are first, second and third projected area (all in mm2).

FIGURE 1: apparatus for Measuring projected area. Potato is positioned in the center of horizontal plate, directionally , under the vision of camera. To compare data statistically, software Microsoft Excel were used. SPSS 15 software was used to determine the best regression models of the physical properties. This function was estimated in this formulla: Y = b0 + b1 x1 + b2 x3 + + bn xn (12)

In which Y is dependant variant such as mass and x1 , x2 , , xn are independent variants such as dimensions and b1 , b2 , b3 , bn are curve fitting parameters which are different in each equation. One evaluation of the goodness of fit is the value of the coefficient of determination. For regression equations in general , the nearer R2 is to 1.00, the better the fit (Stroshine, 1998). Results and Discussion A summary of the physical properties of Agria varity is shown in (Table1). According to the results of the dimentional properties for Agria varity, the mean potato length, width and thickness were 87.42, 60.61 and 50.77mm. The similar research was conducted by Eshaghbigi,2006 and Gorjian,2008. Their results were reprted 81.68, 61.12 and 51.56 mm by Eshaghbigi and 89.20 , 57.40 and 47.20 mm by Gorjian. Mean mass was obtained 163.75 gr and mean volume was 161.25 cm3 that was repoted by Eshaghbigi 158.63gr and 148.06 cm3 and reported by Gorjian 161.20 gr and 154.67cm3 . Also mean true density was obtained 1.06 (gr/cm3) The geometric g ,equivalanp , arithmetic mean diameter a of the potato were 64.27, 64.50 and 66.26 mm respectively. Mean first PA1 ,second PA2 and third projected area PA3 was 6276.18 , 5480.74 and 4414.85 mm2 respectively. Mean surface area S and criteria projected area CPA of Agria variety were 13419.57 and 5390.59 mm2 . Eshaghbigi reported mean surface area 12394.40 mm2 . The sphericity percentage and was 74.75 and was reported 78.61 by Eshaghbigi. According to the result which are shown in (Table2), surface area based on three linear dimensions, lengthL, widthW, and thichnessT (all in mm) with R2 = 0.99 was best regression model. Comparison potato real volume with Oval, oblate spheroid and prolate spheroid shown that potato shap is nearer to oval ,with R2 as 0.86 (Table3).

TABLE 1: Some physical properties of Agria variety potato. Physical properties L ,mm W ,mm T ,mm M, gr V , cm3 t , gr/cm3 ,mm ,mm ,mm Sp , % S, , , , CPA , Ave 87.42 60.61 50.77 163.75 161.25 1.06 64.27 64.50 66.26 74.75 0.71 13419.57 6276.18 5480.74 4414.85 5390.59 Max 158.08 99.84 81.96 377.65 368.97 4.44 99.97 100.66 104.29 96.60 1.04 31380.23 11082. 00 9881.00 6551.60 9171.53 Min 52.07 41.32 36.73 50.53 50.95 0.37 44.73 44.77 45.16 56.34 0.44 6282.42 3717.10 3468.40 2871.70 3472.23 Standard deviation 20.60 12.99 9.02 78.77 75.14 0.45 11.99 12.14 12.71 8.50 0.12 5200.48 2041.59 1661.71 1038.22 1550.57

TABLE 2: The best models and their constant values for volume, mass and surface area based on three linear dimensions Regression model lnV= + lnL + M = L+ S= L+ lnW+ lnT + T + T -6.12 -239.74 -14331.10 Constant values 1.24 2.52 101.32 0.25 -0.27 150.72 1.17 4.01 192.23 0.91 0.86 0.99

TABLE 3: Comparing potato real volume with standard geometric shapes volume Standard Shapes Oval Oblate spheroid Prolate spheroid Conclusions For potato Agria varity mean of length, width and thickness were 87.42 , 60.61, and 50.77mm. The mean mass of poato was obtained 163.75 gr and mean volume was 161.25 and Also mean true density was obtained 1.06 . The mean of 0.86 0.79 0.78 Standard error 26.68 32.97 33.09

geometric

,equivalent

, arithmetic diameter , second

of the potato were 64.27, 64.50 and and third projected area was

66.26mm respectively. Mean first

6276.18, 5480.74 and 4414.85 respectively. Mean surface area S and criteria projected area CPA of Agria variety were 13419.57 and 5390.59 all in .The sphericity percentage was 74.75 and aspect ratio Ra was 0.71. The best regression models was surface area based on three linear dimensions with 0.99. Comparison potato real 2 volume with Oval was best, with R as 0.86. According to this results, for design a effective separation mechanism for potato harvester, stone and clods smaller than 50.77 mm and 163.75 gr should separated from potato. Also for design a sorting machine, highest and the lowest of potato diameter should between 87.42 to 50.77 mm and highest and the lowest of potato weight should between 377.65 to 50.53 gr.

Acknowledgments The authors acknowledge the University of Tehran and Mr. Raeissi for full support of this project. Refrences
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