Res. Agr. Eng., 2018, 64(4):202-208 | DOI: 10.17221/90/2017-RAE

Mechanical properties of blueberry stemsOriginal Paper

Margus Arak1, Kaarel Soots*,1, Marge Starast2, Jüri Olt1
1 Institute of Technology, Estonian University of Life Sciences, Tartu, Estonia
2 Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Estonian University of Life Sciences, Tartu, Estonia

In order to model and optimise the structural parameters of the working parts of agricultural machines, including harvesting machines, the mechanical properties of the culture harvested must be known. The purpose of this article is to determine the mechanical properties of the blueberry plant's stem; more precisely the tensile strength and consequent elastic modulus E. In order to achieve this goal, the measuring instrument Instron 5969L2610 was used and accompanying software BlueHill 3 was used for analysing the test results. The tested blueberry plant's stems were collected from the blueberry plantation of the Farm Marjasoo. The diameters of the stems were measured, test units were prepared, tensile tests were performed, tensile strength was determined and the elastic modulus was obtained. Average value of the elastic modulus of the blueberry (Northblue) plant's stem remained in the range of 1268.27-1297.73 MPa.

Keywords: agricultural engineering; blueberry; harvesting; mechanical properties; elastic modulus

Published: December 31, 2018  Show citation

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Arak M, Soots K, Starast M, Olt J. Mechanical properties of blueberry stems. Res. Agr. Eng. 2018;64(4):202-208. doi: 10.17221/90/2017-RAE.
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