Effect of Storage Period on the Physical and Mechanical Properties of Garlic

Physical and cutting tests were performed at 70-day intervals on a variety of local garlic maintained at three different storage periods to determine the physical properties of garlic bulbs and cloves and the cutting properties of garlic cloves The height, mean width diameter, arithmetic mean diameter, geometric mean diameter, bulk density and sphericity of the bulbs were measured and determined. These values were, respectively, 27.81-28.72 mm, 36.11- 37.88 mm, 33.65-34.52 mm, 33.39-34.10 mm, 90.24%-92.48%, and 529.6-594.6 Kg/m. The length, width, thickness, arithmetic mean diameter, geometric mean diameter, sphericity, bulk density, particle density, porosity and volume for cloves were also calculated. The results showed that storage period has a significant effect on the mean width diameter, arithmetic mean diameter and bulk density of the bulbs and also on the length, bulk density, particle density, volume and arithmetic mean diameter of the cloves. Cutting tests are performed at three loading speeds and three storage periods. The maximum cutting force required to complete cutting of the cloves was 2.28-4.79 N and the mean energy required to complete cutting of the cloves per unit area was 17.297-29.270 mJ/mm2. The mean force required to complete cutting of the cloves per unit area was 1.442-2.98 N/mm2. Storage period had a significant effect on the cutting properties of the cloves.