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Summary Engineering Properties | KU Leuven | 2025/26

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This summary provides a comprehensive overview of the Engineering Properties of Biological Materials course in the Master of Biosystems Engineering program at KU Leuven. It covers the physical properties of biological materials, including size, shape, sphericity, volume, density, porosity, particle size distribution, and curvature, as well as common sorting and grading techniques used for agricultural products. The course also examines moisture relationships and water dynamics in biological materials, including water activity, equilibrium moisture content, sorption isotherms, water potential, turgor pressure, freezing phenomena, and practical applications such as fruit cracking. Biological structure and composition are discussed in detail, with attention to cell walls and membranes, plant tissues, fruit texture, grains and seeds, meat structure and quality changes, and the properties of eggs and bread. A substantial part of the course focuses on the mechanical properties of biological materials, including stress–strain behavior, material testing methods, firmness and stiffness measurements, contact mechanics, and mechanisms of mechanical damage. The rheological behavior of liquid foods is also addressed, covering Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids, viscoelasticity, and various rheological measurement techniques. In addition, the course explores aerodynamic properties, porous biomaterials, thermal properties, and electromagnetic, optical, and machine-vision techniques used in biosystems engineering. Topics include heat transfer, freezing processes, spectroscopy, dielectric heating, color measurement, machine vision, hyperspectral imaging, and light interactions with biological materials. The summary is organized according to the course chapters and includes key formulas from the official formula sheet, important concepts, worked examples, professor-inspired questions, true/false reflection statements, and detailed solutions to tutorial and past-exam exercises. As such, it serves as an excellent resource for exam preparation and for developing a thorough understanding of the fundamental engineering principles underlying biological materials.

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Summary Engineering Properties

,Contents
1 Physical Attributes 6
Chapter Aim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.1 Size of Biological Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.1.1 Why Several Dimensions Are Needed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.1.2 Methods to Measure Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.2 Shape and Shape Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.2.1 Shape Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.2.2 Sphericity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.2.3 Shape Signature and Fourier Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.2.4 Fractal Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.3 Volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.3.1 Platform Scale Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.3.2 Pycnometer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.3.3 Burette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.3.4 Air Comparison Pycnometer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.4 Surface Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.5 Density . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.5.1 Bulk Density . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.6 Porosity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.7 Particle Size Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.8 Radius of Curvature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.9 Regression Between Physical Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.10 Sorting by Size, Shape and Density . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.10.1 Sieving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.10.2 Cylinder, Disk and Spiral Separators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.10.3 Density Separation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.10.4 Fruit and Vegetable Sizers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.11 What You Should Know . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.12 Professor's Example Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1.13 Professor's Re
ection Statements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Key Takeaways . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15


2 Moisture Relationships 16
2.1 Core Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.2 Moisture Measurement Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.3 Water Activity and EMC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.3.1 The Sorption Isotherm and Its Three Zones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.3.2 EMC Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.3.3 Measuring EMC and Water Activity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.3.4 Why Water Activity Matters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.4 Water Potential, Turgor and Freezing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.5 Why Cherries Crack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18




1

, 2.6 Solved Exercise: Moisture Relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.7 What You Should Know . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20


3 Structure 22
3.1 Building Blocks of Biological Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.2 Cell Walls and Membranes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.3 Plant Tissues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
3.3.1 Epidermis, Cuticle and Surface Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
3.3.2 Ground Tissue: Parenchyma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
3.3.3 Support Tissue: Collenchyma and Sclerenchyma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
3.3.4 Vascular Tissue: Xylem and Phloem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3.3.5 Meristematic Tissue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3.4 Fruit Texture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3.5 Grains and Seeds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3.5.1 Corn Kernel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3.5.2 Wheat Kernel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3.5.3 Rice Kernel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3.5.4 Soybean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3.6 Meat Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3.6.1 Muscle Tissue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
3.6.2 Connective and Fat Tissue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
3.6.3 Muscle Contraction Mechanism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
3.6.4 Post-Mortem Changes and Rigor Mortis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
3.6.5 Eect of pH: DFD and PSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
3.6.6 Tenderness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
3.7 Eggs and Bread . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
3.8 What You Should Know . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
3.9 Professor's Example Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28


4 Mechanical Properties of Solids 30
4.1 Basic Mechanical Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
4.2 Testing Machine, Load Cell and Wheatstone Bridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
4.3 Shear and Bulk Deformation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
4.4 Stress-Strain Behaviour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
4.4.1 Engineering and True Stress/Strain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
4.5 Measurement Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
4.5.1 Uniaxial Compression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
4.5.2 Tension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
4.5.3 Bending . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
4.5.4 Puncture and Penetration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
4.5.5 Acoustic and Vibration Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
4.5.6 Stiness, Dynamic Stiness and Firmness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
4.5.7 Egg Shell Strength . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
4.6 Cell-Based Interpretation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
4.7 Hertz Contact Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
4.7.1 Using Hertz Theory in Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
4.8 What You Should Know . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
4.9 Professor's Example Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37




2

, 5 Mechanical Damage 39
5.1 Failure Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
5.2 Failure Criteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
5.3 Apple Tissue Failure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
5.4 Static Stacking Loads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
5.5 Impact Damage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
5.5.1 Using Impact and Contact Formulas in Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
5.6 Grain and Seed Damage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
5.7 What You Should Know . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
5.8 Professor's Example Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42


6 Rheological Properties of Liquid Foods 44
6.1 Why Rheology Matters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
6.2 Viscosity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
6.3 Types of Fluids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
6.3.1 Time-Independent Fluids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
6.3.2 Time-Dependent Fluids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
6.4 Factors Aecting Fruit Juice Viscosity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
6.5 Viscoelasticity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
6.6 Measurement Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
6.6.1 Capillary Viscometers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
6.6.2 Falling-Sphere Viscometers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
6.6.3 Rotational Viscometers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
6.6.4 Rheometer: Rotation and Oscillation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
6.6.5 Oscillatory Small-Strain Rheometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
6.6.6 Contactless Rheology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
6.7 Application: Process Control in Cheese Making . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
6.8 What You Should Know . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
6.9 Professor's Example Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54


7 Aerodynamic Properties 56
7.1 Force Fields for Sorting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
7.2 Drag Force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
7.3 Types of Drag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
7.4 Drag Coe
cient and Reynolds Number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
7.5 Shape Factor and Non-Spherical Particles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
7.5.1 Regular Compact Shapes: Sphericity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
7.5.2 Elongated Shapes: Aspect Ratio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
7.5.3 Irregular Shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
7.6 Terminal Velocity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
7.6.1 Experimental Determination of Terminal Velocity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
7.7 Application: Separation of Crop Fractions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
7.8 What You Should Know . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
7.9 Professor's Example Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62


8 Mechanical Properties of Porous Biomaterials 63
8.1 Compression Phases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
8.2 Particle Movement Versus Particle Compression: the Cauchy Number . . . . . . . . 64
8.3 Design of Balers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
8.4 Bulk Compression Modelling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
8.4.1 Purpose and Scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
8.4.2 Material Classi
cation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
8.4.3 Boltzmann Superposition Principle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65




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