The texture of bread is strongly influenced by the cell structure and the extent of staling during storage. The goal of this project was to examine and analyze the effect of stress on cell structure. Bread crumb was digitally modeled in both MATLAB and SolidWorks, tensile testing was performed with an Instron machine, and microscopes were used to visually inspect both the effects of force and the fracture pattern. The results indicated that the open and closed cell ratio of bread crumb does not initially change within the testing period of one week. The cells elongate in the direction of the tensile force and the cell wall ruptures at high stresses, with a mixed intracellular and transcellular fracture. Staling does not have a significant effect on cell structure.

• This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

Creator

• Komara, Rachel A
• Lavoie, Heather M

Publisher

• Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Identifier

• E-project-011416-132436

Advisor

• Shivkumar, Satya

Year

• 2016

Date created

• 2016-01-14

Resource type

• Major Qualifying Project

Major

• Mechanical Engineering

Rights statement

• In Copyright