Journal of Food Engineering 104 (2011) 293298

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Food Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jfoodeng

Deformation behaviour simulation of an apple under drop case by nite

element method
H. Kursat Celik a, Allan E.W. Rennie b, Ibrahim Akinci a,
a
b

Department of Agricultural Machinery, Faculty of Agriculture, Akdeniz University, 07070 Antalya, Turkey
Lancaster Product Development Unit, Department of Engineering, Lancaster University, LA1 4YR, Lancaster, United Kingdom

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 29 January 2010
Received in revised form 22 October 2010
Accepted 21 December 2010
Available online 28 December 2010
Keywords:
Drop test
Finite element method
Organic materials
Golden Delicious apple

a b s t r a c t
This study focuses on the deformation behaviour of organic materials under a drop case. A Golden Delicious apple was chosen as the sample organic material. A three-dimensional (3D) scanner, high speed
camera and nite element method (FEM) simulations were utilised to investigate drop case deformation
events of the organic material. In total, 22 steps after impact were set up in the simulation by comparing
high speed camera screen steps. Maximum equivalent stress of 0.416 MPa and maximum contact force
(resultant normal force from rigid plane at impact) of 250.980 N were obtained from simulation results.
Visual investigations and simulation results relating to deformations observed under the drop case,
agreed well. This study contributes to further our understanding of fruit and vegetable damage/deformation by using computer aided engineering applications.
2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The design and development of agricultural/food machinery
systems are related with properties of agricultural biological or/
and organic material directly or indirectly. Hence, it is very important to conduct research about the properties of these materials,
such as fruit and vegetables. These properties are also a sign of
the quality of the agricultural products. Much research has signied that the quality of the fruit or vegetables could be determined
by their internal and external characteristics. These characteristics
can be presented as size, shape, smell, appearance, product presentation and texture (Wang and Sheng, 2005; Abbott and Lu, 1996;
Chen and De Baerdemaeker, 1993a; Petrell et al., 1980; Abbott
et al., 1968).
Most especially, the issue of mechanical damage has a huge signicance on the quality of these agricultural products. Mechanical
damage mostly occurs during harvesting, handling, transportation
and storage. In addition to mechanical effects, agricultural materials may be exposed to various thermal, electrical, optical, and
acoustical effects during such processes (Sitkei, 1986). Thus, the
damage inicted can contribute to decreasing quality of the product through biological degradation, such as rotting. Therefore, prediction of the level of damage, stress distribution and deformation
of the organic material under the external forces has become a very
important issue.
Corresponding author. Tel.: +90 242 310 2464; fax: +90 242 227 4564.
E-mail address: iakinci@akdeniz.edu.tr (I. Akinci).
0260-8774/$ - see front matter 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jfoodeng.2010.12.020

In fact, it is very difcult to measure internal stresses, which are

caused by mechanical effects, due to the biological cell structure of
fruit and vegetables. Numerical methods can be utilised as an
alternative solution for prediction of the stresses. Analytical
methods for stress investigations are available today only for a
few simple cases, and so their applications are limited. Available
technology, the proliferation of computers and software allow
engineers to solve complicated problems using computer aided design (CAD) technology and numerical methods in a virtual way
without committing to physical manufacture and testing (Topakci
et al., 2010). The practical cases occurring in agricultural engineering mostly represent complex problems, which may be solved only
by numerical methods (Sitkei, 1986). One of these approaches is to
estimate the stress eld of organic materials using nite element
method (FEM) (Cardenas and Stroshine, 1991). FEM is a numerical
procedure that can be used to obtain solutions for complicated or
large scale engineering problems involving stress analysis, heat
transfer, electromagnetism, and uid ow. The method has been
improved since the 1950s and during the 1960s, investigators began to apply FEM to other disciplines of engineering (Moaveni,
1991).
Many studies, which are conducted using FEM, can be found in
the scientic literature, related to the mechanical damage and
physical property investigations of organic materials (Kabas
et al., 2008; Chen and De Baerdemaeker, 1993a,b; Lu and Abbott,
1997; Verstreken and De Baerdemaeker, 1994; Chen et al., 1996;
Langenakens et al., 1997; Celik et al., 2008). These studies show
that FEM can be a suitable method for calculating some of the

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properties and to determine deformation behaviour of the organic

materials.
Additionally, most of the research on fruit impact damage has
been performed on apples, particularly over the past 45 years (Zeebroeck et al., 2007). However, the usage of the numerical methods/
simulations on the impact damage on apples is quite limited alongside the other methods.
The aim of this study is to understand the deformation behaviour of a Golden Delicious apple under drop case scenario utilising
FEM simulations and visual investigations. The apple was dropped
from a height of 0.5 m in an assumed rigid plane under the earths
gravitational effect. The moment of impact and the apples deformation behaviour was recorded by using a high speed motion camera. In the study, a 3D solid model of the apple was created by
using a 3D scanner and 3D parametric solid modelling software.
A commercial FEM code was utilised for drop test simulations.
The original prints of the simulation and visual investigations were
presented by data supporting the comparisons.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Material

Fig. 1. Forcedeformation curve for Golden Delicious apples.

apple. The FEM code calculates impact and gravity loads automatically; no other loads or restraints are used. The FEM code then calculates the velocity (V) at impact from: V = (2 g h)1/2, where, g is
gravity [m s2] and h is drop height [m]. The FEM code solves a dynamic problem as a function of time. To simulate an object dropping and hitting a hard surface, the FEM code has to solve the
following general equation iteratively, because as the object falls
and hits the oor, the forces and stiffness keep changing (SolidWorks Product Document, 2009).

Mfag Cfvg Kfxg fFg

A Golden Delicious apple was used as the sample organic material in this study to investigate deformation in the drop case scenario. This apple for the experiment was specically chosen for
having the potential of reecting the deformation behaviour on
its clean and light-coloured skin which is suitable for use with a
black and white screen high speed motion camera. One apple
was randomly picked from the shelves of a supermarket which
was previously kept in a cold storage unit. The mechanical properties of the apple were taken from a previous study to use in the
FEM simulation. Some of the mechanical properties and a chart,
which details relations between force and deformation, are shown
in Table 1 and Fig. 1, respectively (Celik et al., 2008).
2.2. Three-dimensional solid modelling of the apple
Agricultural biological and organic materials have complicated
and complex freeform surfaces. Hence, creating the 3D solid model
of them is a difcult task to undertake, necessitating the need to
reect the apple surface using the 3D scanning technique. As such,
a NextEngine Model 2020i Desktop 3D Scanner was used as the
means for generating a surface model of the apple. Then the surface model was processed into a 3D solid model using Solidworks
3D parametric solid modelling software. After measurements, the
mass of the solid model weighed 152.759 g. The 3D solid modelling
process and the dimensions of the apple are presented in Fig. 2.
2.3. Drop case scenario of the apple
Drop test studies evaluate the effect of the impact of a part or an
assembly with a rigid or exible planar surface. Dropping an object
on the oor is a typical application. In this study, Solidworks Simulation FEM code was utilised for the drop case simulation of the

Table 1
Some mechanical properties of a Golden Delicious apple.
Parameter

Magnitude

Tolerance

Force [N]
Strain [%]
Elastic modulus [N mm2]
Poisson rate []
Density [g cm3]

42.120
5.243
1.512
0.384
0.796

1.647
0.500
0.065
0.007
0.031

where M = mass matrix, C = damping matrix, K = stiffness matrix,

F = external force vector, a = acceleration vector, v = velocity vector,
x = displacement vector.
In the simulation, the body moves in the direction of gravity as a
rigid body until it hits the rigid plane (no rotations are considered
until the initial impact occurs). Loss of energy in a drop test normally occurs due to damping, friction, or plastic deformation. However, the FEM code does not support damping in a drop test
analysis. In this study, we do not dene friction and we use a linear
isotropic material. Therefore, the impact causes no energy loss and
the model continues to bounce off the impact plane for an indenite period of time. The drop test requires a dynamic analysis solver and the software solves this analysis using an explicit method
of direct-time integration. This is a computationally intensive, but
numerically stable technique for solving problems in a dynamic
analysis (CosmosWorks Product Document, 2008).
The aim of the study was to examine the deformation behaviour
of the organic material in the drop case. To achieve this aim, both
visual examinations and FEM simulations were used. During the
transfer(s) from orchard to retailer, the potential drop heights of
between 0.05 m and 1.2 m have previously been researched in
the scientic literature related with drop tests of apples (Stropek
and Golacki, 2007; Moaveni, 1991; Menesatti and Paglia, 2001;
Holmes et al., 1998). Potential dynamic apple loading situations
and associated drop heights are given in Table 2 (Lewis et al.,
2007). Hence, a suitable assumption was created by considering
potential drop heights from the scientic literature for the drop
height in this nite element analysis (FEA). The drop case scenario
assumed that the apple was dropped from 0.5 m high onto a rigid
planar surface under the earths gravitational effect.
This drop case was recorded by using a high speed motion camera: Kodak motion corder analyser SR-series, which is designed to
be a valuable addition to the engineers problem solving kit (Kodak
product user manual, 1998). In the study, dropping moments were
recorded by using 3000 fps resolutions with 128  120 frame size
and a black and white screen.
In fact, it is not possible to simulate all real life responses of the
materials in the deformation simulations. Due to the limitations
and unpredictable material and dynamic conditions, some
assumptions have to be made to gain approximate solutions. As a
result of these similar limitations, the apple was assumed to be
an entire solid together with skin and an isotropic material model

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295

Fig. 2. 3D Solid modeling of the apple.

Table 2
Potential dynamic apple loading situations and associated drop heights.
Point in journey

Process stage

Potential drop height (m)

Orchard
Packing house

Picking bucket
Bulk bin
Repack
Sorting (Conveyors, etc.)
Putting on display

0.6
0.61
0.050.15
0.050.15
0.050.3

Distributor
Retailer

was assumed in the FEM simulation. It was quite difcult to control

the impact position. Hence, the apple was allowed to free fall and
the simulation was set up according to the resulting impact
position of the apple. Steps of 22 were set after the rst impact
moment in the simulation for the drop case. Mesh construction

was created in the SolidWorks Simulation FEM code and second order tetrahedral solid element type was used for the mesh construction. Total elements of 37203 and total nodes of 43828 were
obtained for mesh construction of the solid model. Drop case scenario and mesh construction of the apple are presented in Fig. 3.

3. Results and discussion

After completing the FEM pre-processor operations, solving
operation was generated. The deformation behaviour, equivalent
stress distributions and contact forces (resultant normal forces
from rigid plane at impact) of the apple were obtained for each
step. According to the FEM simulation results, the maximum
equivalent (Von Mises) stress of 0.416 MPa and maximum contact

Fig. 3. Drop case and mesh construction of the apple.

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Table 3
Stresses and contact forces.
Step
Number

Max. global
stress (Von
Mises) [MPa]

Contact
force
[N]

Step
number

Max. global
stress (Von
Mises) [MPa]

Contact
force
[N]

Step-01
Step-02
Step-03
Step-04
Step-05
Step-06
Step-07
Step-08
Step-09
Step-10
Step-11

0.234
0.305
0.341
0.367
0.403
0.416
0.413
0.385
0.353
0.300
0.219

35.264
83.533
136.200
186.780
228.390
250.980
246.070
213.050
157.970
94.121
40.247

Step-12
Step-13
Step-14
Step-15
Step-16
Step-17
Step-18
Step-19
Step-20
Step-21
Step-22

0.122
0.031
0.032
0.028
0.024
0.039
0.044
0.027
0.027
0.026
0.018

5.887
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0

the point when the maximum stress is reached. Contact force is

zero at step 13 as there is no contact with the rigid surface at this
step. However, after step 13 there are instances of stress observable, ranging from the value 0.0180.044 MPa even when there is no
contact force existing at all.
A comparison for approximate damage can be conducted using
the FEA results and the chart which is given in Fig. 1. According to
the forcedeformation curve, the maximum force was 42.120 N.
This value is lower than the simulation result that was
250.980 N. Hence, it can be said that the fruit damage for this drop
case is in existence.
It should be highlighted that damage shape and magnitude of
the organic material can be changeable under different impact conditions and orientations. In the physical test section of this study, it
is important to consider the maximum deformation case in dropping an apple. The drop angle which is used in the simulation
was chosen to simulate one of the worst drop cases (i.e. the smallest contact area between the apple and the drop substrate). To
investigate different orientated drop cases, the simulation parameters can be redened by researchers and results can be interpreted visually if desired. Besides, as the previous studies
highlighted, it should not be ignored that the simulation results
and bruise susceptibility change not only depend on drop angle,
but also depend on humidity, harvest time, apple variety and some
mechanical properties such as elastic modulus and Poisson ratio
(Garcia et al., 1995; Pang et al., 1994; Ragni and Berardinelli, 2001).

4. Conclusions

Fig. 4. Stress magnitudes of the apple according to drop steps.

force of 250.980 N occurred in step 6. The other steps stress values,

contact force values and their charts are given in Table 3 and Fig. 4,
respectively.
The apples drop case was compared with simulation result
plots, where each simulation step was compared with images of
the high speed cameras steps. As a result of the comparison, it
can be agreed that the simulation and the cameras steps work in
unison with each other. In addition to this, the simulations results
allow us to investigate the section stress distributions. Comparison
of the camera images and simulation prints are given in Fig. 5. As
can be seen in Fig. 5, the rst stress values occur at step 1, as soon
as the apple has impacted the rigid surface. The contact force
reaches its maximum value at step 6 and then the apple starts to
bounce as a reaction to the rigid surface. Meanwhile, step 6 is

Visual investigation of physical events is a very important issue

in all disciplines of engineering, especially to understand and
examine material behaviour, which under the loading case, can
be very difcult for the complex structures associated with organic
materials. Generally, visual investigations do not allow for examinations of what happens inside of the material under the loading
case. However, these simulations can be very useful in that
process.
Most especially during long transportation times of these organic materials, some mechanical damage may occur due to vehicle vibrations, collisions between the materials and drop cases.
Therefore, for instance, the design of specic packaging systems
in accordance with predicted damage scenarios for different organic material may be a viable option. The other important issue is impact damage cases between organic materials during harvesting
and post-harvesting processes. It is also difcult to predict how
the deformations occur. However, computer aided engineering
(CAE) applications can help in these issues. Hence, in this study,
it is focused on how the CAE applications help to simulate deformation behaviour of the organic material during harvesting, handling, transportation, and storage.
According to this study, some concluding points can be presented as follows:
 The sample apple was modelled as solid 3D using reverse engineering tools, so that all surface details of the apple could be
obtained for the solid model as accurate using a 3D desktop
scanner;
 The drop case scenario assumed that the apple was dropping
from 0.5 m high onto a planar rigid surface under the earths
gravitational effect and this scenario was recorded with
3000 fps and 128  120 frame size by using a high speed camera. This experiment in this study presented that use of a high
speed camera record can be very useful to understand and
investigate deformation behaviour of these kind of organic
materials under drop cases;

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297

Fig. 5. Drop simulation and high speed camera comparison.

 The FEM simulation was set up according to the drop case scenario with 22 steps after impact moment and it was solved.
Maximum equivalent stress of 0.416 MPa and maximum contact force of 250.980 N were obtained for the step 6 in the
FEM simulation, and each step was compared with step images
of the camera;
 It is agreed in the comparison of the simulation and experimental study that simulation plots work in unison;
 Although there are some limitations, it can be agreed that CAE
applications are very useful in predicting deformation of round
fruits such as apples.

Acknowledgements
This study was part-supported nancially by the Scientic Research Fund of Akdeniz University. Additionally, the authors wish
to acknowledge the UK EPSRC-supported Engineering Instrument
Loan Pool at Rutherford Appleton Laboratories for the loan of the
high speed camera equipment utilised in this research.

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