Physical properties of olive

 B. Ghamary1,2, A. Rajabipour1, A. M. Borghei1, H. Sadeghi3(1. Agricultural Machinery Department., Faculty of Biosystems Engineering, University of Tehran, Karaj,Iran; 2. Ilam University, Ilam, Iran;3. Agricultural Machinery Department, Faculty of Agricultural Engineering, University of Mazandaran, Mazandaran, Iran) Abstract: Physical properties of olive, a fruit of paradise, and of other agricultural products are important factors in the design of processing, grading, transporting and other agricultural machinery.  As an initial step to help improve the design of the machinery, in this research physical characteristics of two varieties of local olives, “yellow olive” and “oily olive”, were studied. Having been randomly collected during harvest season, for each olive sample three basic diameters, weight, and volume were measured and the following physical characteristics were estimated.  For yellow olive and oily olive, the averages of geometric mean diameter were 20.04 mm and 18.28 mm respectively and their sphericties were 0.81 and 0.79 respectively.  Application of regression analysis addressing the relationship between the volume and weight of each variety of olive yielded a significant relationship.  Also, the volume of the olive samples was compared with that of an assumed ellipsoid shape, which again indicated a significant relationship.  Finally, the correlation sought between olive flesh and the whole olive fruit was similarly found to be quite significant.Keywords: Olive, physical properties, geometric mean diameter, sphericity, Iran Citation: Ghamary B, A. Rajabipour, A. M. Borghei, H. Sadeghi.  Physical properties of olive.  Agric Eng Int: CIGR Journal, 2010, 12(2): 104-110. &nbsp