Physical and engineering properties of pomegranate fruit and arils

Several physical properties such as porosity, geometric mean diameter, surface area, fruit mass and dimensions, fruit volume, coefficient of static friction, projected area, skin colour, aril colour, aril dimensions and aril ratio which are imperative to characterize the fruits of pomegranate with a view to understand the properties that may affect the design of machines to handle their processing were determined. The average fruit mass, length, width and thickness of pomegranates were determined as 208.06 g, 58.04 mm,72.06 mm and 70.08 mm respectively. On three different surfaces static friction coefficient values were between 0.76 (galvanized steel sheet) and 0.46 (plywood) and 0.84 (glass). The aril ratio and 1000-arils mass were 72 per cent and 278 g respectively.