This document provides an overview of mechanical unit operations for particle technology. It discusses [1] how mechanical operations involve physically changing materials through processes like crushing, grinding, sieving and separation based on properties like density and size. [2] It characterizes individual particles based on their size, shape, density and how mixtures contain distributions of particles that can be analyzed. [3] Screen analysis is described as a standard method to measure particle size ranges using woven wire screens with standardized mesh sizes.
This document provides an overview of mechanical unit operations for particle technology. It discusses [1] how mechanical operations involve physically changing materials through processes like crushing, grinding, sieving and separation based on properties like density and size. [2] It characterizes individual particles based on their size, shape, density and how mixtures contain distributions of particles that can be analyzed. [3] Screen analysis is described as a standard method to measure particle size ranges using woven wire screens with standardized mesh sizes.
This document provides an overview of mechanical unit operations for particle technology. It discusses [1] how mechanical operations involve physically changing materials through processes like crushing, grinding, sieving and separation based on properties like density and size. [2] It characterizes individual particles based on their size, shape, density and how mixtures contain distributions of particles that can be analyzed. [3] Screen analysis is described as a standard method to measure particle size ranges using woven wire screens with standardized mesh sizes.
A Teaching Material Prepared For 3nd Year Industrial
Chemistry Students By: Moges Admasie (Lecturer In Industrial Chemistry) 2013 Outlines Particle Technology Introduction Particle size and shape Mixture of particle and size distribution nd Introduction As the name suggests Mechanical operations are those unit operations that involve physically changing a material. Mechanical operations also include separation of material on the basis of physical/mechanical properties like density, size, wettability, etc.
Mechanical unit operations can be categorized into three operations:
Anything that involves only physical change is called mechanicla unit
operation For ex: drying, evaporation, sieving, size reduction, separation etc. are unit operations. Particle Technology Solids in general are more difficult to handle than liquids or gasses.
In processing, solids appear in a variety of forms such as:
Angular pieces Continuous sheets Finely divided powders They may be: Tough and rubbery Soft or fragile Dusty Cohesive Free flowing or sticky. Characterization of solid particles
An understanding of the characteristics of masses of particulate solids is
necessary in designing processes and equipment for dealing with streams containing such solids (powders). Individual solid particles are characterized by their size, shape and density. Particles of homogeneous solids have the same density as the bulk material. Particles obtained by breaking up a composite solid have various densities, usually different from the density of the bulk material. Sizes and shapes are easily specified for regular particles, such as spheres and cubes but for irregular particles (such as sand grains or mica flakes), the terms sizes and shape are not clear and must be arbitrarily defined. Characterization of solid particles Particles Shape The shape of an individual particles is conveniently expressed in terms of sphericity, which is independent of particle size. For a spherical particle of diameter Dp, = 1. For a non spherical particle, the sphericity is defined by the relation.
The equivalent diameter is sometimes defined as the diameter of a sphere
of equal volume. For fine granular materials, however, it is difficult to determine the exact volume and surface area of a particle and Dp is usually taken to be the nominal size based on screen analysis or microscopic examination. Characterization of solid particles The surface area is found from adsorption measurments or from the pressure drop in a bed of particles and then finally used to calculate . For many crushed materials, is b/n 0.6 & 0.8. But for particles rounded by abrasion, may be as high as 0.95.
Hence the volume of sphericity is fractional or unity for sphere
Particle shape Sphericity Examples
Spherical 1 Glass beads Rounded 0.82 Water worn solids Cubic 0.806 Sugar Angular 0.66 Crushed materials Flaky 0.54 Gypsum Platlet 0.22 Clay, mica, graphite Characterization of solid particles Particle Size In general, diameters may be specified for any equidimensional particle. Particles that are not equidimensional, i.e. that are longer in one direction than in others, are often characterized by the second longest major dimensions. For needlelike particles, for example, Dp would refer to the thickness of the particles, not their length. By convention, particle size are expressed in different units depending on the size range involved. Coarse particles are measured in inches or millimeters; fine particles in terms of screen size; very fine particles in micrometers or nanometers. Ultrafine particles are sometimes described in terms of their surface area per unit mass, usually in square meters per gram. Mixed particle size and size analysis In a sample of uniform particles of diameter Dp the total volume of the particles is m/ρp Where: m=the total mass of the sample ρp= the density of the particles The number of particles in the sample N is:
The volume of one particles
The total surface area of the particles is:
Specific Surface Area of A Mixture If the particle density ρp & sphericity are known, the surface area of the particles in each fractions may be calculated from previous equation and the results will be added to give Aw (the specific surface area). Average Size For A Mixture of Particles The average particle size for a mixture of particles is defined in several different ways.
Volume-Surface Mean Diameter ( )
The most used is the volume-surface mean diameter ( ), which can be defined as:
Substituting Aw:
If the number of particles in each fraction Ni is known instead of the mass
fraction, is given by: Average Size For A Mixture of Particles The arithmetic mean diameter is:
Where, NT is the number of particles in the entire sample.
The mass mean diameter:- can be found from:
The volume mean diameter:- can also be found from:
For samples consisting of uniform particles all the above average
diameter are the same: For mixture containing particles of various sizes, the above several diameters may differ from one another. Number Of Particles In Mixtures For a given particle shape, the volume of any particles is proportional to its diameter.
Where a is the volume shape factor.
Assuming a is independent of size and Nw is the total population in one
mass unit of sample, is obtained by summation over all the fractions: Screen Analysis Standard screens are used to measure the size (and size distribution) of particles in the size range b/n about 76mm & 38 µm. Testing sieves are made of woven wire screen, the mesh and dimensions of which are carefully standardize. The openings are square. Each screen is identified in meshes per inch. The area of the openings in any one screen in the series is exactly twice that of the openings in the next smaller screen. The ratio of the actual mesh dimension of any screen to that of the next smaller screen is that √2=1.41 Screen Analysis