Study on some morphological and physical Characteristics of sweet lemon used in mass models

Mass grading of vegetables and fruits provide useful insight into designing of sizing machine and reducing the packaging and transportation costs. In this research, sweet lemon mass was correlated to different physical attributes using linear and nonlinear models as three different classifications: (1) single or multiple variable regressions of sweet lemon dimensional characteristics, (2) single or multiple variable regression of sweet lemon projected areas and (3) estimating sweet lemon mass based on its volume. The results showed that mass modeling of sweet lemon based on intermediate diameter and first projected areas are the most appropriate ones in the first and the second classifications, respectively. In third classification, the best model was obtained on the basis of the ellipsoid volume as M = 0.903 V_ellip + 15.236 with R² = 0.886, whereas corresponding values were 0.86 and 0.299 for assumed sweet lemon shapes (oblate spheroid and actual), respectively. In economical and agronomical point of view, suitable grading system of sweet lemon mass was ascertained based on intermediate diameter as nonlinear relation: M = -0.002 b² + 6.0386 b -239.58, R² = 0.8566 and R.S.E. =11.898.