Abstract

The objectives of this work were to verify the moisture content influence on the maximum compression force values, to determine the Proportional Modulus of Deformation, the Maximum Tangent and Secant for acerola seeds under compression on its natural repose position and for fixed deformations. Acerola seeds with moisture content varying from 0.12 to 0.46 (d.b.) compressed uniaxially between two parallel rigid plates. It can be concluded that the compression needed for deforming the acerola seeds decreases as its moisture content increases when the deformation values were within 19.2 and 548.8 N. The Proportional Modulus of Deformation increases with the reduction of the moisture content, where values found were within 5.2 to 72.1 × 10⁷ Pa. The sigmoidal model represented resistance to the compression of the acerola seeds adequately for different moisture content.

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