Sponsor Agency: WSU Faculty Start-Up Fund
Karkee, M.*;De Kleine, M.
Drop heights and fruit contact surfaces are important to engineers designing machinery and processing equipment. In this study, various drop tests were conducted using an instrumented sphere, peaches, pears, and apples. The instrumented sphere was dropped on three surfaces: a tiled floor, a human hand, and a non-Newtonian shear-thickening surface composed of cornstarch and water. For use as a damage boundary in harvesting and handling procedures, a shear-thickening non-Newtonian fluid surface can limit acceleration and velocity of moving fruits. Reducing the impact forces will reduce the bruise rates during handling.