Physical characterization and mass modelling of Wood apple (Aegel marmelos L.)

Engineering properties of fruits and vegetables are useful in designing and development of agro processing machinery. In this study, the physical and mechanical properties of Wood apple were determined. Furthermore, the investigation include mass modelling based on physical properties of Wood apple. Fruits are graded by mass rather than size are more useful for developing the automated sorting and grading machines. Four different mathematical models (Linear, Quadratic, S-curve, and Power model) were applied to predict mass, volume and projected area of Wood apple. The data was evaluated and compared for graded and ungraded fruits. The mass of ungraded Wood apple was best predicted via arithmetic mean diameter (Da) as mean diameter in the S-curve model (M = 0.001+ (2.848/Da); R² = 0.995; SEE = 0.048). Whereas, the ellipsoid volume (V_ellip) of fruit was also best predicted in the S-curve model based on volume (M= 0.002+ (0.951/V_ellip); R² = 0.995; SEE = 0.050) for ungraded fruits.