Abstract
Considering that gape and heave produced during the freezing of tuna fish derive from changes in the mechanical properties of tuna fish itself during freezing,the Poisson's ratio and Young's modulus of tuna meat were measured at the respective temperature conditions of i) no freezing,ii) partial freezing,and iii) freezing. The results of measurement were shown that the mechanical properties of tuna meat displayed temperature dependence as sudden change at the boundary temperature of freezing beginning as summarized below: 1) the mechanical properties of tuna meat were anisotropic according to the tissue and structure of the fish body,but these properties greatly varied according to the test temperature;2) the Young's modulus of non-frozen tuna meat were approximately 50 KPa,but these became an extremely large value (approxi111ately 4 GPa) after being frozen; and 3) the Poisson's ratio decreased as the frozen water percentage increased,but these displayed an approximate value of one or more.
