SIMULATION OF A CONCEPTUAL FRESH TOMATO FRUITS PACKAGING CONTAINER FOR TRANSPORTATION

Abstract

Tomato is a tender and compression-sensitive fruit. It is a viscoelastic material that mostly experience compressive stress when packaged in unit loads, resulting in deformation, bruising and/or complete failure of the fruit. Harvested tomato fruits in Nigeria are packaged in traditionally woven raffia baskets and transported in open trucks making them highly susceptible to mechanical damage. An inefficient packaging system is a disadvantage to tomatoes marketing due to its direct influence on cost, quality and overall post-harvest losses. The need for an effective tomato packaging container that could ameliorate post-harvest losses becomes expedient, hence, in this study, a packaging container for fresh tomato fruits was conceived. The container was developed in automated computer aided design (AutoCAD) and verified with a computer simulation using 2016 3-Dimensional solid works software. The static analysis, solid mesh, and free body forces were set and the simulation installed and attached. The material properties used was Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) of linear elastic isotropic, tensile strength of 4 X 10⁷ N/m², elastic and shear modulus of 2.41 X 10⁹ N/m² and 8.622 X 10⁸ N/m² respectively with a mass density of 1070 kg/m³. The simulation was run assuming a normal force of 200N exerted on the weight of the tomatoes, and a corresponding reactive force considered. Stresses on the container base and handles, ability to stack, drop and buckling tests were simulated. Simulation results revealed that the conceived container when developed can withstand the transportation rigor with insignificant damages to the packaged tomato.