FRACTURE ENERGY DURING SLICING OF FROZEN MEAT BY A VIBRATING KNIFE

The force, and hence fracture energy, required to cut horse quadriceps muscle, using a knife which was vibrated in the direction of material feed, were measured over a range of temperatures (-1.5 to -32.5 degre es C), vibration frequencies (no vibration and I to 1000 Hz), accelera tions (0.073 to 75 m s(-2)), thicknesses (0 to 40 mu m off-cut), and d irection to the muscle grain. High vibration accelerations (75 m s(-2) ) resulted in reduction of the cutting force; the reduction was indepe ndent of the off-cut thicknesses and resulted from lowering the coeffi cient of friction between the vibrating blade and the frozen meat. Row s of ice formed by the blade showed that pressure melting of the ice a round the cutting region occurred during cutting and suggested that a hydrodynamic lubricating layer of water reduced the friction of the vi brating blade. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.