Uniaxial Compression of Swiss-Type Cheese at Different Strain Rates

Rheological behaviour of 48 Swiss-type cheese samples in lubricated uniaxial compression was evaluated at three initial strain rates ranging from 4.76 x 10(-3) to 7.62 x 10(-2) s(-1) Modulus. apparent fracture stress and apparent, fracture strain increased significantly with increasing strain rate, which is attributed to the viscoelastic nature of cheese. The influence of strain rate on apparent fracture strain strongly depended on the shape of the stress-strain curves. The relationship between the rheological parameters evaluated at different strain rates proved to be significant. The strain rate dependency of the apparent fracture strain is further explained by the contribution of elastic and viscous components, which was evaluated in relaxation experiments in the linear viscoelastic region.