Instrumentation for mussel (Perna canaliculus) shell strength measurements
Damage to shells of the farmed green-lipped mussel (Perna canaliculus) has been estimated to cost the New Zealand export industry up to $NZ10 million annually. The compressive strength of more than 3300 mussel shells was measured to quantify differences between growing locations and to provide information to assist in the design of improved shell handling systems and procedures. Portable instrumentation, and data acquisition and storage procedures were developed to enable large sample sizes to be tested at places where the facilities of a materials-testing laboratory were not available. Mussels were loaded in a modified Hounsfield Tensometer after measuring their length, width and depth with a digital caliper. Dimensions and strength data were recorded using a PC-mounted data acquisition board. A graphical user interface was developed to control the board, provide calibration and monitoring functions, and to write the data to an ASCII file for subsequent analysis.
mussels shell strength testing bivalves