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The copyright of a submitted article is only transferred to the publishers if and when the article is accepted for publication. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, electrostatic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publishers.
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Friction coefficient of maize, cowpea and groundnuts on different structural surfaces
Abstract
The coefficient of friction of food grains and seeds which are necessary for the design of equipment for handling, transport, processing and storage of ‘mamaba', ‘asetenapa' and ‘chinese' varieties of maize, cowpea and groundnut respectively have been evaluated as a function of grain moisture content varying from 10% to 28% (wb). In this moisture range, the coefficient of friction increased from 0.223 to 0.674. There was an increase in the coefficient of friction from 0.223 to 0.453 for ‘asetenapa' variety, 0.260 to 0.522 for ‘mamaba' variety and 0.288 to 0.577 for ‘chinese' variety on rubber surface in the moisture content range of 10% to 28% (wb). Also on galvanized steel at the moisture content range of 10% to 28 %( wb), the coefficient of friction increased for ‘asetenapa' variety from 0.259 to 0.498, ‘mamaba' variety from 0.284 to 0.558 and ‘chinese' variety from 0.309 to 0.619 and on plywood, ‘asetenapa' variety had coefficient of friction increasing from 0.279 to 0.579, ‘mamaba' variety 0.311 to 0.624 and for ‘chinese' variety from 0.356 to 0.674. ‘Chinese' variety of groundnuts had the highest coefficient of friction on all the three surfaces studied with values ranging between 0.288 and 0.674 as against values of 0.223 to 0.579 for ‘asetenapa' variety which had the lowest values. Moisture effects on the coefficient of friction for the products studied were highly significant at 1%. From the study it can be said that product specification is necessary in the selection of materials for the construction of handling systems, dryers and silos.
Journal of Science and Technology(Ghana) Vol. 27 (1) 2007: pp. 142-149
