Physical and mechanical properties of three varieties of cucumber: A mathematical modeling

Source abstract

Abstract The current investigation was devoted to determining some properties, such as physical dimensions, surface area, sphericity, density, stiffness, and terminal velocity of cucumber. For this purpose, different cultivars of cucumber which commonly consumed in Iran, namely, Nagin, Shahab, and Shahin were selected. Also, in order to propose a new model for the terminal velocity of cucumber, a dimensionless model was established. The obtained results showed that varieties of Shahab, Shahin, and Nagin had an average length of 163.4, 118.97, and 133.89 mm, respectively. Corresponding values for average diameter for varieties mentioned earlier were measured as 26.99, 57.811, and 27.59 mm, respectively. Moreover, the density determined from the measurement of mass and volume for Shahab, Shahin, and Nagin varieties were calculated as 956, 1042, and 990 kg m −3 , respectively, while the compressive and shear bio‐yield point of them were reported as 628.38 and 74.094, 505.11 and 89.33, and 652.2 and 64.79 N, respectively. Additionally, the assessment of the dimensionless model, regarding the coefficient, mean relative deviation, and root means the square error of comparison between predicted and measured terminal velocity were 0.9, 0.15, and 0.013, respectively. Therefore, the obtained characteristics may be useful in the design of different unit operations of post‐harvesting technologies. Practical applications Measurement of physical properties of different common cucumber fruits can be accounted for as a useful tool to design the post‐harvesting unit operations. Therefore, the proposed mathematical model for the description of the terminal velocity of cucumber could be approached in pickle production units. Also, the obtained properties are usable in hydro transport and sorting of the fruit.