The characteristics related to the physical properties of agricultural products can be considered when designing and sizing machinery systems/equipment used in agricultural production. Agricultural products as biological/organic materials have several unique characteristics, which set them apart from conventional engineering materials such as steel and plastic based materials, in the context of inner structure and product geometry/shape. Agricultural materials have heterogeneous inner structures and irregular shapes cultured by nature. Most especially, the irregular shape of most agricultural products complicates their physical and engineering analysis. Therefore, precise description of the irregular product geometry/shape is significant for any related analyses used in both product quality evaluation and design of agricultural machinery systems.
This study describes a reverse engineering application procedure for precise description of the physical attributes related to geometric features (size, shape, volume etc.) of the agricultural products under consideration. In the study, a three-dimensional (3D) laser scanner has been utilised and 3D digital model data of the selected sample agricultural product (Pecan) processed in the virtual environment through 3D scanner software and 3D parametric solid modelling design software has been collected. After 3D solid models were created, some of the physical attributes related to geometric features of the agricultural products were measured precisely and realistic virtual 3D computer aided design (CAD) data was provided for deeper rheological investigation such as structural deformation, fluid dynamics (flow) and heat transfer analyses of the products by means of computer aided engineering (CAE) techniques. Finally, a comparative deformation simulation case study was concluded.
This study contributes to further research into the development of agricultural machinery and equipment through the utilisation of reverse engineering and CAD tools.