Physical Properties of Some Tropical Fruits Necessary for Handling

Some engineering properties of three vegetable fruits have been determined to enhance handling and processing of these fruits. The fruits are Abelmoschus esculentus (okra), Solanum aethiopicum (garden egg) and Capsicum annum (sweet pepper).Experiment was carried out on three fruit varieties to determine shape, volume, and surface area. The results of the experiments revealed that average values of volumes and surface areas of the three fruits, okra, sweet pepper, and garden egg were 13.28cm3, 24.14cm3 and 7.97cm3; and 52.69cm2, 33.67cm2 and 26.58cm2 respectively. The observed and the predicted values of volume for pepper and okra fruits were similar as the ANOVA test was insignificant at both 95 and 99% confidence interval except for that of garden egg. Also there were significant differences between the observed and the predicted surface areas of the fruit studied; hence the need for regression equation to predict the needed surface area for easy handling. Their shapes were also determined to be conical for okra and sweet pepper and prolate spheroid for garden egg. Keywords: Prolate spheroid, Postharvest, Biomaterials, Storage structure, Pneumatic conveying, Silo