COMPRESSIVE DEFORMATION PATTERNS OF SELECTED FOOD POWDERS

The mechanical behavior of selected food powders was studied by an Instron UTM through compression, decompression, and stress relaxation tests. Powders in moist or cohesive state were considerably more deformable than in dry or noncohesive state. Upon decompression, cohesive powders remained compacted while the noncohesive powders returned to a free flowing state. This phenomenon was manifested in the ratio between recoverable and nonrecoverable work. Moisture also modified the stress relaxation pattern of the compact in a way that could be explained in terms of reorientation of liquid bridges and the plasticity of the bed solid matrix.