1. Ert 318 : unit operations operations involving particulate solids
By Noor Amirah Abdul Halim

2. outline Introduction to particulate solids
Characterization of solid particles
Particle size
Screen analysis
Tyler standard screen analysis

3. Introduction
Large quantities of particles handled on the industrial scale is frequently define as a whole
Thus, it is necessary to know the distribution of particle sizes in the mixture and able to define a their mean size which represents the behaviour of the particulate mass as a whole
It is frequently necessary to reduce the size of particles or form them into aggregates or sinters to ease the handling process
Sometimes it might necessary to mix two or more solids, or sometimes need to separate a mixture into its own component or according to the sizes of the particles
Important operations relating to systems of particles include storage in hoppers, flow through orifices and pipes, and metering of flows

4. Characterization of solid particles
Individual solid particles are characterized by:
(a) Shape – regular – e.g. spherical or cubical
irregular – e.g. a piece of broken glass
(b) Size – influence the properties such as :
- the surface per unit volume
- the settling rate of particle in fluid
(c) composition - determines properties such as density and conductivity

5. Particle shape
The shape of an individual particle is expressed in terms of sphericity, which is independent of particle size
- For spherical particle of diameter Dp;
= 1
- For nonspherical particle;
Dp = nominal diameter of particle
Sp = surface area of one particle
Vp = volume of one particle
(1)

6. - For most of crush materials 0.6 < > 0.8
-For particles rounded by abrasion;
> 0.95
- For a cube and cylinder; = 1
Source ; Unit Operation of Chemical Engineering (McCabe,Smith & Harriot) ( Table 7.1 page 164)

7. Particle size Mixed particle sizes
In a sample of uniform particles of diameter Dp the number
of particles in a sample ,N is given by;
From Eq. (1) and (2), the total surface area of particle sample, A can
be computed by
(2)
(3)
These equation applicable to mixtures of particles having various sizes and densities, the mixture is sorted into fractions, each of constant density and approximately constant size

8. Specific surface of mixture
The specific surface, Aw ( the total surface area of a unit
mass of particles) if and are constant is given by;
(4)
where subscripts = individual increments
= mass fraction in a given increment
= number of increments
= average particle diameter, taken as arithmetic
average of smallest and largest particle
diameters in increment

9. Average particle size Volume-surface mean diameter ( ) given by
The volume-surface mean diameter, is related to the Aw is
given by
By substituting Eq. (4) in Eq. (5);
(5)
(6)

10. Arithmetic mean diameter ( ) Mass mean diameter ( )
where is the number of particles in the entire sample

11. Volume mean diameter ( )
By dividing the total volume of the sample with the number of
particles in the mixture, gives the average volume of a particle
The diameter of such a particle is the volume mean
diameter
*For samples consisting of uniform particles, these average diameters are all the same. For mixtures containing particles of various sizes, however the several average diameters may differ widely from one another.

12. Number of particles in mixture
For a given particle shape, the volume of any particle is proportional to its “diameter” cubed or
where a is the volume shape factor.
Unlike , it is different for various regular solids which are;
(1) for a sphere
(2)0.785 for a short cylinder (height = diameter)
(3)1.0 for a cube.
Assuming a is independent of size,

13. screen analysis
Used to measure the size of particles in the size range between in.(76 mm and 38µm)
A set of standard screens is arranged serially in a stack, with the smallest mesh at the bottom and the largest at the top
The sample is placed on the top screen and the stack shaken mechanically for 20 min
The particles retained on each screen are removed and weighed, and the masses of the individual screen increments are converted to mass fractions or mass percentages of the total sample
Any particles that pass the finest screen are caught in a pan at the bottom of the stack

14. SIEVE TRAYS Pan (the finest particles retained here)
Sieve (different mesh size)
Sieve trays were put on a stack (shaker)

15. Screen Analysis Table

16. Column 1 – mesh size
Column 2 – width of opening of the screens
Column 3 – the mass fraction of the total sample that is retained on the designated screen
Xi – i is the number of the screen starting at the bottom of the stack; thus i = 1 for the pan, and screen i + 1 is the screen immediately above screen I
Column 4 – average particle diameter Dpi in each increment
Column 5 – cumulative fraction smaller than each value of Dpi
In screen analysis, cumulative fractions are sometimes written starting at the top of the stack and express as the fraction larger than a given size

17. Tyler standard screen analysis
Based on the opening of the 200-mesh screen, which is established at mm
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, (2)^1/2=1.41

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