Determination of some physical properties of virgin olive fruits

Abstract

Information on physical properties of virgin olive fruit, especially those grown in Iran,arenot available in literatures. Some physical properties of Mari variety of virgin olive fruits,namely: dimensional properties (length, width, thickness, arithmetic mean diameter, geometric mean diameter, sphericity, volume of the fruit, surface area and projected area), gravimetric properties(unit mass of fruit, 1,000 fruit mass, bulk density, true density and porosity), frictional properties (angle of repose and coefficient of friction), modeling dimensional properties and mass (using normal distribution) were studied. Also sphericity, volume, surface area and projected area were calculated using different theoretical equations.

Length, width and thickness of fruits ranged from 18.46 mmto 27.63 mm, 15.80 mmto 21.99 mm and 14.77 mm to 20.33 mm, respectively. Bulk density of fruits increasedfrom 590.78 kgm^-3 to 646.51kgm^-3 as the volume container increased from 500 ml to 2,000 ml and true density of 1,059.14kgm^-3were obtained. The highest value forangle of repose and coefficient of friction amongplywood, rubber, iron and galvanized surfaceswererecorded for iron surface and the lowest value was recorded for galvanized surface.

Keywords: normal distribution, dimensional properties, gravimetric properties, frictional properties, modeling