Determination of Some Physical and Mechanical Properties of Bitter Kola Nuts

Abstract

Bitter Kola (Garcinia Kola) is an important crop that has medicinal
and economic values and is commonly utilized traditionally in the
treatment of several ailments. Thus, research was carried to
investigate the physical and mechanical properties of bitter kola nut,
namely length, width, thickness, mean diameters, sphericity,
porosity, angle of repose and static coefficient of friction. The
average length, width and thickness varied between 20.5 and
35.0mm, 15.6 and 21.0mm, and 14.0 and 17.0mm. The average
sphericity, aspect ratio, surface area volume, 1000 unit mass bulk
and true densities of bitter kola nut revealed 73%, 66%, 1182mm2
,
750kg/m3 and 1274kg/m3
. While the coefficient of static friction for
various surfaces (glass, plywood, galvanized steel and rubber) were
found to be 0.465, 0.532, 0.466 and 0.582 respectively. The results
obtained will be useful in the design and development of machines to
mitigate against stress involved in handling and processing bitter
kola (Garcinia kola) nut.