FOURIER SHAPE DESCRIPTORS AND PARTICLE BREAKAGE ENERGY

Abstract

ABSTRACT Non linearities in population balance grinding equations can seriously decrease Che accuracy of the simulation, scale-up, or design of grinding circuits. A solution to this problem may be to incorporate particle shape in the grinding equations, provided that particle shapes change during grinding. In two examples of single particle crushing, unique particle shapes were produced by each level of energy input. In a third grinding example, observed nonlinear grinding kinetics of coal in a dry batch ball mill coincided with changes in particle shape. Fourier shape descriptors were used to detect the differences in shape, and can become an important tool in improving population balance models.