Mechanical properties of tomato exocarp, mesocarp and locular gel tissues Original Research Article

In order to accurately predict the internal stress distribution and damage region of tomato fruit subjected to an external force using finite element method, the tomato fruit can be regarded as a multibody system which consists of exocarp, mesocarp and locular gel tissues. In the paper, these tissues’ mechanical properties of two tomato varieties were determined using different types of test. Results showed the tension failure stress and elastic modulus of exocarp tissue varied from 0.421 to 0.582 MPa and 4.601 to 9.59 MPa respectively; the compression failure stress and elastic modulus of mesocarp tissue varied from 0.122 to 0.229 MPa and 0.726 to 0.846 MPa respectively; the compression failure stress and elastic modulus of locular gel tissue varied from 0.012 to 0.016 MPa and 0.048 to 0.124 MPa respectively; the failure stress and elastic modulus values of outer layer tissue of tomato fruit were higher than those of inner layer tissue.