Some Physical and Mechanical Properties of Garlic

Abstract

The physical parameter results showed that the garlic geometric and arithmetic mean diameters ranged from 2.53 to 4.93, and 2.53 to 5.02 cm, respectively according to the bulb size categories. The cloves' length, width and thickness were 1.92 to 2.91, 0.78 to 1.32, and 0.69 to 0.99 cm, respectively. The surface and cross-sectional of areas ranged from 53.31 to 136.4 and 29.1 to 128.4 cm2, respectively. The number of cloves ranged from 18 to 51/bulb according to the bulbs size categories. Bulk density, repose angle and coefficient of contact surface values ranged from 892 to 1007 kg/m3, 41.52 to 45.04º, and 0.91 to 1.12, respectively, according to the bulb size categories.The chemical properties showed that the emptying (friction) angle ranged from 23.25 to 28.82º, where small bulbs recorded the highest values on the concrete surfaces, while the lowest values were recorded by the large bulbs on the iron surfaces. The friction coefficient decreased with increasing bulb size, where it was the highest (0.8) for the small bulbs on the concrete surfaces; on the other hand, the lowest values (0.36) were recorded for the large bulbs on the iron surfaces. The crushing load of the cloves ranged from 55.6 to 155.0 N, depending on the bulb size. The force required for loosening the cloves from the bulb ranged from 110 to 272 and 101 to 320 N on the horizontal and vertical positions of the bulbs.