Study of Temperature Differences between Unscathed and Defective Areasof Fruits Using Infrared Radiation Measurement

Temperature measurement is an important phenomenon in all of industries and agricultureand strongly influenced by biophysical and mechanical of agricultural products properties.Unscathed and defective fruits such as apple and orange have considerable difference intemperature due to distinct respiration. The aim of this study is feasibility of use of infraredradiation measurement which arises from temperature changes of unscathed and defective areasof fruits. In this research, one apple variety, “Red Delicious” and one orange variety “ThompsonNavel” were selected so the samples had difference in skin surface. The experiments werecarried out in two basic steps, finding the appropriate emission coefficient which indicatetemperature differences properly and temperature differences measurement. At the beginning ofthe experiment the best emission coefficient for showing the temperature differences betweenintact and defective areas of both fruits was found ۰.۲۸. Afterwards, temperature differences ofboth types of fruits were measured more than ۲°C for ۸۴% of the samples. This nondestructiveand low cost method could be used in sorting and grading of agricultural products

Keywords:

Infrared radiation , Emission coefficient , Temperature measurement , Defective