laatste wijziging: 27/10/1999

Postharvest technology and processing

Geometrical model generation for finite element meshes of biological products based on digital image processing

Funding

Scholarship from KU Leuven and SOROS foundation (This research is finished in 1999 and resulted in a PHd thesis)

Researcher involved

Summary

The finite element method is commonly used for a wide variety of agricultural engineering problems such as structural analysis, heat and mass transfer etc. Its main advantage is that it can be applied to irregularly shaped objects composed of different materials with non-homogeneous properties. A first step in the finite element analysis is the construction of a geometric model of the object to be analyzed. In the case of agricultural products this model must be defined manually which is complicated by their complex shape. Therefore often a simplified geometrical model of the object is used and many important details are lost.

The objective of the research is to develop algorithms to generate 2D or 3D finite element meshes of agricultural products based on digital images, and to apply this to some real-life problems in agricultural engineering.

During the research following sub-objectives are achieved

• Geometric modelling of inhomogeneous agricultural products containing substructures (e.g., corn kernels) based on
  (i) thin slices of the object, or
  (ii) nuclear magnetic resonance images.
• Statistical shape analysis of batches of agricultural products such as pears for subsequent stochastic finite element analysis
  (Random geometry generator for different fruits)
• More precise curve fitting by means of non uniform rational bicubic splines (NURBS)
• Description of the geometrical model in IGES format
• Finite element simulation of the vibrational natural frequencies of pears as a tool for firmness measurement

Some Results

• Initial images and models
• Java applet page to visualise the generated geometrical models

Publications

• Journal publications
• Conference papers

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Copyright 1996, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
Informatieleverancier: Faculteit Landbouwkundige en Toegepaste Biologische Wetenschappen
Reakties voor de auteurs: Pál Jancsók
URL: http://www.biw.kuleuven.be/aee/amc/staff/palj/model.htm