Abstract
This study was carried out as basic researches to develop the leaf vegetable harvester. This study was conducted to investigate physical and rheological properties of bundled leaf vegetables with stem (Chinese leek, Crown daisy and Chamnamul) as test materials held and picked-up by a machine. Stress-strain behavior, stress relaxation, and strain recovery for the bundled materials were analyzed using simple Maxwell model. Physical and rheological properties of the materials were investigated by measuring rupture load, deformation and stress experimentally. Also, strain recovery time when unloading was measured using super high speed camera. Recorded recovery time for stress-strain behavior was0.026 s for Chinese leek with liner strain recovery, 0.046 s for Crown daisy and 0.05 s for Chamnamul with non-linear strain recovery. Furthermore, the strain recovery time for permanent deformation was 0.026 s, 0.046 s, and 0.05 s for Chinese Leek, Crown daisy and Chamnamul, respectively. Finally, strain recovery time and strain recovery ratio for the test materials were 0.17 s, 60.4% in Chinese leek, 0.12 s, 55.3% in Crown daisy, 0.15 s, 58.7% in Chamnamul. Here strain recovery time means that how fast the test materials are recovered from initial deformation and strain recovery ratio means how much the test materials are recovered from initial deformation. The above results show that the test materials can be held enough and moved by the belts.