ISHS Acta Horticulturae 566: II International Symposium on Application of Modelling as an Innovative Technology in the Agri-Food Chain; MODEL-IT
A FINITE ELEMENT RESPIRATION-DIFFUSION MODEL TO STUDY CORE BREAKDOWN IN 'CONFERENCE' PEARS |
| Authors: | J. Lammertyn, N. Scheerlinck, P. Jancsók, B.E. Verlinden, J. De Baerdemaeker, B.M. Nicolaï |
| Keywords: | Controlled atmosphere, core breakdown, pear, respiration-diffusion model |
| Abstract:
A respiration-diffusion model was constructed to study the development of core breakdown, a controlled atmosphere storage disorder, in 'Conference' pears. Respiration and diffusion were uncoupled to obtain reliable parameter estimates for both phenomena. The 'diffusion-free' respiration parameters of the modified Michaelis-Menten kinetics, were estimated in an independent respiration experiment on pear cell protoplasts. A novel method, based on Fick's law of diffusion, was developed to measure oxygen and carbon dioxide diffusivity of pear tissue and skin. The respiration and diffusion parameters were combined again in a reaction-diffusion model and a three dimensional geometry of a pear was constructed with an imaging system. Based on this geometry and model, three-dimensional oxygen and carbon dioxide profiles were simulated for intact pears, depending on the storage conditions. The contours of the simulated gas profiles were parallel with the boundaries of the pear and corresponded very well to the brown discolored tissue on the real pear slice. The respiration-diffusion model seems to be a promising tool to simulate the effect of controlled atmosphere conditions on the incidence of core breakdown during storage. | |
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