Simulation of Bruising in Persimmon Under the Dynamic Impact by the Finite Element Method

Abstract

Persimmon is a soft fruit, which is why it is one of the horticultural products most prone to mechanical damage throughout the cold chain. Understanding the impact of this damage on the post-harvest quality of these fruits is extremely important to reduce losses that occur throughout the supply chain. This study used the finite element method (FEM) to predict the damage to persimmon during impact loading. The tensile and puncture tests were used to find mechanical properties, and the pendulum tests for three levels of impact. During simulation, persimmon was modeled as an elastic–plastic, and the problem was considered a non-linear explicit procedure. Two different force-time and initial velocity methods were used for simulation in Abaqus software. Results of the maximum von Mises stress, maximum contact force, deformation, bruise volume, and internal energy indicated that increasing the impact level in both methods resulted in a rise of stress, deformation, bruise volume, and absorbed energy. The average error in contact force in the force-time and initial velocity methods was 12% and 21%, respectively. Also, the average deformation error in the force-time and initial velocity methods was 10% and 52%, respectively. According to these results, the force-time method is more accurate, and the elastic–plastic model can properly represent the behavior of persimmon.