Humidity and mechanical properties of onion skins

Strength, stiffness, strain at fracture and moisture content of onion skins were measured after incubation at a range of humidities. Higher relative humidity (RH) resulted in skins which had greater moisture content, were stronger in multi-directional tests and which were less stiff. In uni-directio...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Postharvest biology and technology 2000-07, Vol.19 (3), p.229-237
Main Authors: Hole, C.C, Drew, R.L.K, Gray, D
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biological and medical sciences
Bulb
Failure strain
Failure stress
Food industries
Fruit and vegetable industries
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Humidity
Mechanics
Onion
Quality
Skin
Stiffness
Strength
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Strength, stiffness, strain at fracture and moisture content of onion skins were measured after incubation at a range of humidities. Higher relative humidity (RH) resulted in skins which had greater moisture content, were stronger in multi-directional tests and which were less stiff. In uni-directional tests, skins incubated at higher RH had extended more at fracture than those incubated at lower humidity, but were no stronger. Skins exposed to 95% RH were about twice as resistant to breaking in multi-directional testing as those exposed to 16% RH. This effect seemed to result from a much greater ability to extend before fracture occurred. The implications for skin conditioning of stored onion bulbs are discussed.
ISSN:0925-5214
1873-2356
DOI:10.1016/S0925-5214(00)00107-1