Investigating the box type and the number of fruit rows on mechanical properties of nectarine in response to simulated transport vibrations

Vibrations on imported fruits can cause one of the damage such as impact, wear and compression or a combination of them to the fruit. The nectarine fruit tissue is soft at the soft handling stage, which increases the susceptibility to mechanical damage during transportation and storage. In this study, the effects of simulated transport vibrations on the quality of nectarine fruit with five levels of frequency, three levels of displacement, two types of boxes, three types of adsorbent on the first, second and third rows of fruit have been studied. The root mean square vibration acceleration was considered as a measure of the vibration magnitude and the vibration transferability percentage was calculated in different treatments. In addition, the maximum stress and modulus of elasticity at the yield point were calculated. Results showed the absorbers had the highest and lowest vibration absorption in the frequency range of 5.7 to 7.5 and 8.9 Hz, respectively. The first, second and third rows of fruits had the lowest transmitted and the highest vibration absorption at accelerations of 0.8, 8.4 and 6 ms-2, respectively. The lowest vibration absorption was obtained in the first, second and third rows at accelerations of 2.3, 5.1 and 3.4 ms-2. Therefore, it is recommended to use cardboard boxes with paper absorbers inside to carry the fruit and do not place more than one row of fruit in each box.