Analysis of Light Transport Features in Stone Fruits Using Monte Carlo Simulation

PLoS One. 2015 Oct 15;10(10):e0140582. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0140582. eCollection 2015.

Abstract

The propagation of light in stone fruit tissue was modeled using the Monte Carlo (MC) method. Peaches were used as the representative model of stone fruits. The effects of the fruit core and the skin on light transport features in the peaches were assessed. It is suggested that the skin, flesh and core should be separately considered with different parameters to accurately simulate light propagation in intact stone fruit. The detection efficiency was evaluated by the percentage of effective photons and the detection sensitivity of the flesh tissue. The fruit skin decreases the detection efficiency, especially in the region close to the incident point. The choices of the source-detector distance, detection angle and source intensity were discussed. Accurate MC simulations may result in better insight into light propagation in stone fruit and aid in achieving the optimal fruit quality inspection without extensive experimental measurements.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Computer Simulation
  • Food Quality
  • Fruit*
  • Monte Carlo Method
  • Phantoms, Imaging
  • Photobiology / instrumentation
  • Photobiology / methods*
  • Photons
  • Prunus persica / anatomy & histology*

Grants and funding

This work was supported by Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 2662015BQ046) and Hubei Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 2015CFB479).