COMPARISON OF 2 TYPES OF MODELS FOR CONCAVE FORCE-DEFORMATION CURVES PRESENTATION

Compressive force-deformation curves of solid foods with upward and downward concavities are described by a power law and two, two-parameter mathematical models that can be transformed into linear equations by rearrangement. The fit of the latter to experimental data was comparable to or better than that of a two-parameter power law model. These two models can simplify the procedure and shorten the time of data processing in certain applications of computer interfaced testing machines. Their main advantage over the power law model, however, is that they can facilitate the analysis of the compressive behavior of double-layered arrays of objects in general and that of finger(s)-food system in particular.