Response of Edam cheese to non-destructive impact

Abstract

The behaviour of the Edam cheese during its maturation under dynamic loading has been studied. The block of tested cheese has been loaded by the impact of an aluminium bar. The force between bar and cheese has been recorded. The surface displacements as well as the surface velocities have been obtained at the different points from the point of the bar impact using of the laser vibrometers. Response functions have been evaluated both in the time and frequency domains. It has been found that the degree of the cheese maturity is well characterized by the attenuation of the surface displacement maximum. This maturation is also described by the maximum of the impact force. The spectral analysis of the response functions revealed that there was a dominant frequency, which depends only on the degree of the cheese maturity. The developed method represents a promising procedure for the continuous recording of the cheese ripening.

Keywords

• Edam cheese
• maturation
• non-destructive impact