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Size Reduction - 4th September - 2023
Size Reduction - 4th September - 2023
Primary/Coarse size
reduction
Miscellaneous
methods
Solid-Gas separation
Dynamics of Fluidization
Storage, Handling Storage of solids particle in gas
and Transport of medium
Solids Transport of solids
Comminution/
Size Reduction
Resource
Books
Compression, impact or shearing loads are used for breaking brittle materials like coal and minerals whereas
fibrous materials like wood and asbestos are disintegrated by exerting tearing loads.
The Mechanism of Size Reduction
Grinding is achieved by mechanical stress followed by rupture and the energy required
depends upon:
1. the hardness of the material
2. the tendency of the material to crack (friability).
The force applied may be compression, impact, or shear, and both the magnitude of
the force and the time of application affect the extent of grinding achieved.
Energy for size reduction
For efficient grinding, the energy applied to the material should exceed, by as small a margin as
possible, to the minimum energy needed to rupture the material.
Excess energy is lost as heat and this loss should be kept as low as practicable.
Grinding is a very inefficient process and it is important to use energy as efficiently as possible.
Three theories/laws depend upon the basic assumption that the work done/Energy required to
produce a change dL in a particle of a typical size dimension L is a simple power function of L
dL
dW C n ……(1) Where, dW is the differential work done, dL is the
change in a typical dimension, L is the characteristic
L length
Comminution Laws
The laws on comminution proposed by different authors help us determine the energy consumed in
comminution.
Rittinger’s Law (1867):
The law says that “The work done in crushing is proportional to the surface exposed by the operation”
P 6K R 1 1 1 1
W K R ( s p sF ) KR
'
m s DVS , P DVS ,F DVS , P DVS ,F
1 ……(2)
KR is the Rittinger’s constant and is the Rittinger’s number.
KR
Rittinger’s number is defined as the new surface created per unit mechanical energy absorbed by
the metrical being crushed.
The original form of the law says that “energy required to produce analogues changes of configuration of
geometrically similar bodies varies as the volumes or masses of these bodies”
The above statement is not valid when new surfaces are created
The modified Kick’s law that can be applied to crushing states that “the work required for crushing a
given mass of material is constant for the same reduction ratio irrespective of original size”
P DVS ,F
W K k ln ……(3)
m DVS , P
Bond’s Law (1952)
It stats that “total work useful in breakage that has been applied to a given weight of homogeneous
broken material is inversely proportional to the square root of the average size of product particles,
directly proportional to the length of crack tips formed and directly proportional to the square root of
new surface created”
Or
It stats that “work required to form particle of size Dp from very large feed is proportional to the
square root of the surface-to-volume ratio of the product”
P 1 1
W Kb ……(4)
m DP DF
Bond constant (Kb) is evaluated by defining Work index
Work index (Wi) is defined as the gross energy requirement in kilowatt hours per ton
of feed needed to reduce a very large feed to such a size that 80 percent of the product
passes a 100 μm screen.
If E in kilowatts, and ṁ in tons per hour,
a) K b 100Wi 10Wi When Dp is in microns
P 100 1
W Wi 1 ……(6)
m DP RR
DF
Where, Dp is in microns and RR (Reduction ratio)
DP
Revised Bond’s theory
In 1957, Holmes (2) pointed out that, starting from Kick’s law, Bond’s third theory should be revised as
follows:
r
P 100 1
W Wi 1 r ……(7)
m DP ( RR )
He demonstrated that r varies from 0.25 to 0.73 for several materials, and that such a concept leads to
a more consistent work index, Wi, than that calculated by Bond.
General Form
dL
dW C n
L
A material is crushed in a Blake jaw crusher such that the average size of particle is
reduced from 50 mm to 10 mm with the consumption of energy of 13.0 kW/(kg/s).
What would be the consumption of energy needed to crush the same material of
average size 75 mm to an average size of 25 mm :
Which of these results would be regarded as being more reliable and why ?
18
Solution:
Given
Find
Dp = 25 mm ( Average diameter of product from the crusher)
W= ??
DF = 75 mm ( Average diameter of feed from the crusher)
19
a) Rittinger’s Law (1867)
The law says that “The work done in crushing is proportional to the surface exposed
by the operation”
6K R 1 1 ' 1 1
WR K R ( s p sF ) KR
s DP DF P
D D F
…..(6)
1
KR is the Rittinger’s constant and is the Rittinger’s number.
KR
Case 1:
1 1
WR K
'
R kJ
Using equation 6 P
D DF ⇒ K 162.5
'
kg mm 1
R
1 1
13.0 K R'
10 50
20
Case 2:
Using equation 6 1 1
WR 162.5 4.33 kJ/kg
25 75
b) Kick’s law Law (1867)
The modified Kick’s law that can be applied to crushing states that “the work
required for crushing a given mass of material is constant for the same reduction
ratio irrespective of original size”
DF
WK K k ln …..(7)
DP
21
Case 1:
DF
Using equation 7 WK K k ln
DP kJ
⇒ K K 8.08
50 kg
13.0 K k ln
10
Case 2:
Using equation 7
75 kJ
WK 8.08ln 8.87
25 kg
22
b) Bonds’s Law (1952)
Case 1: 1 1
WB K b
Using equation 1 DP DF kJ
⇒ K b 74.36
1 1 kg mm 1/2
13.0 K b
10 50
Case 2:
Using equation 2
1 1 1 1 kJ
WB K b 74.36 6.28
DP DF
25 75 kg
23
Consumption of energy using Bond’s law /
Kick’s law will give more accurate
estimate for the given problem
24