Particle Characterization Richard Hoge Particulate materials—dry powders as well as liquid or gas suspensions~play an increasingly important role in modern society. Most industrial processes involve particulates in some stage of the operation, pethaps as raw materials, as products, as unwanted by-produets of wear, or simply as atmospheric dust. Particle systems are especially important in mineral processing—a field that deals almost exclusively ‘with particulates, from run-of-mine ore to final concentrate. The objective of a mineral processing oper- ation is to take an input stream of particles with a given set of characteristics, modify those characteris: tics, and separate the material into product streams, each with its own set of specified characteristics. Obviously, characterization is critical to the operation, assessment, and control of mineral processing unit operations and systems. The primary aims of this chapter are to address the goals of particle characterization for mineral processing applications in light of practical constraints, to discuss general schemes for representing particle characteristics, and to describe and evaluate the various tech- niques available for measuring particle characteristics, Fine particle systems are a distinct class of materials whose behavior is often determined more by their particulate characteristics than by the bulk properties of the actual solids. Of these characteristics, the distributions of size, shape, and structure are especially important, and their evaluation is a vital step in process control and product specification. The characteristies are not usually single valued. Each particle has its own set of characteristics; the system of particles is described by the distributions of the different characteristics. The use of average values may be appropriate in some cases; in others, it may bbe quite inadequate. In addition to the individual particle characteristics, there are bulk properties that belong to the particle system. To some extent, these bulk properties are determined by the complete set of individual characteristics, but they may also depend on the relative arrangement of the particles in space and on interactions among particles and with any intervening medium (air, water, et.) PARTICLE CHARACTERISTICS ‘Two subsets of individual particle characteristics can be considered: basic and derived, Basic character: {sties represent a minimum set that, when taken together, completely define the particle. By definition, the basie characteristics indude = Size = Shape = Composition (chemieal and mineralogical) ‘= Structure (single component or composite; arrangement of constituent phases including pores) Examples of derived characteristis inelude # Density ‘= Optical characteristics: color, refractive index, refleetance10 | PRINCIPLES OF MINERAL PROCESSING = Electromagnetic characteristics: conductivity, magnetic susceptibility ‘= Thermal characteristies: conductivity, heat capacity = Chemical characteristics: solubility, reactivity = Mechanical characteristics: strength, Young's modulus, Poisson's ratio Derived characteristics are—in principle, at least-fixed by and dependent on the set of basic chat- acteristics. [n other words, all the characteristics just listed are determined by the size, shape, composi- tion, and structure of an individual particle. ‘The bulk properties of a particle system include © Surface area # Reactivity = Toxicity ‘These are essentially determined by the set of basic, individual characteristics and by (1) bulk density and porosity, (2) homogeneity, and (3) rheology. The latter features depend additionally on the spatial “arrangement of the particles and oa interactions among them. Bulk properties are, by definition, single ‘valued, but they may depend on the state of the system as well as on its content. [Distributions of Particle Characteristics Individual characteristics generalty vary from particle to particle and can be represented by distribu- ‘tions. In general, the distributions can be expressed as discrete values or continuous functions in either incremental or cumulative form. For some characteristic p (e.g, size, shape, composition), the incre- mental distribution can be defined as a set of discrete values: {q)=the fraction of particles for which p has the specific value pi (€, 23) ‘or s a continuous variable: ‘a(p)dp = the fraction for which p lies in the range p to p + dp (Ea. 22) ‘The cumulative distribution is defined as the fraction for which p is less than some specific value. ‘Thus, for the discrete case, =e e422) it and the continuous equivalent i ’ apr = facwrap (ea. 24) * Distributions of particle characteristics are, for the most par, inherently continuous; that is, not restricted to specific values. It is often convenient, however, to consider discrete classes of particles, in Whieh case be a= faleidp (Ea. 2.5) p In practice, it is often necessary to consider variations in more than one characteristic; for example, size and composition, Denoting these characteristics by p 4, for example, the variations can be described by using what is called the joint distribution: dys. =the fraction of particles for which p= pj, r= rj $=, on 8s (ea. 26)PARTICLE CHARACTERIZATION | 1. Although it becomes apparent that all four of the basic characteristics can vary in typical ore ‘samples, it is normally practical to consider only two at the most (e.g., size and composition). In this ‘case, a useful alternative is to introduce the conditional distribution: Jolt) and the marginal distribution: fraction of particles with a given value of p for which (E927) (p= 4.= the fraction ofall particles for which p= p; regardless of the value ofr (Eq. 2.8) The conditional and marginal distributions are related to the joint distribution, qy through WF) aed For particle systems, various characteristic are commonly expressed relative to particle size. Thus, the particle size distribution és used as the marginal distribution, with the distributions of other charac- teristics (shape, composition, etc.) as conditionals. Gres and coal can often be regarded as binary mistures of values and gangue. Because these components typically vary significantly in density, particle ‘density is widely used as an indicator of particle composition. This practice is especially appropriate ‘when gravity separations are to be used for beneficiation. An example ofa size/density disteibution for ‘coal is given in Table 2.1 and in Figures 2.1 and 2.2. Figure 2.1 shows the overall size distribution (marginal) and the size distribution for 1.25 specific-gravity material (conditional). Table 2.1. and Figure 2.2 give the joint distribution, Description of Particle Characteristics ‘To describe the characteristics of a particle, it is generally desirable to assign them numerical values. ‘These values should be clearly defined, unique, and measurable in practice. Satisfying these criteria is not simple, and problems arise for each of these various characteristics. Particle Size and Shape. It is well known that the behavior of systems of fine particles is strongly ‘dependent on the sizes of the individual particles and that the size effects become increasingly impor- tant as the particles become progressively smaller. Despite the obvious importance of particle size, however, the evaluation and even precise definition of particle size are far from simple tasks. In general, -we want to express the size of a particle as a single, linear dimension and refer to, for example, a 6-ft ‘boulder, a 1-in, pebble, and a 10-mieron particle. The problem is, which linear dimension do we use? Only in the case of simple shapes, such as spheres or cubes, can we identify a single dimension that adequately characterizes particle size. Note, however, that even in these cases we must specify the ‘TABLE 2.1 Example of a size/specific gravity distribution for coal: Weight percent (qq) values ‘Specie sae) - Gravity Ginx Sinx ifinx ‘Aime Yeinx Bx ax 48 Mesh oH Sin aYein, aim Yam, Mesh 14 Mesh 48Mesh iSifet) 444 573 1630 875 O75 401 858 2.32 13x14 162 «209° 5.63326 305433 14x15 064 068 140 08% 083 032 025 0.12 15x16 043° O46 086 038 043 017 086 008 16x17 021 026 049 047 022 0.09 0080.0 47x48 043 O48 O.37T Ok 0.0080 28(sink) 49279355 BOL 0.28 Total 16 1228613 B 10 13 32 ‘Source: Data from Sokaski, Jacobson, and Geer 1963.12 | PRINCIPLES OF MINERAL PROCESSING * 2 ‘ ; ‘0 ° ui i > io Parc Sz, n ~ ®) Zo or 1 70 100 Particle Size, mm FIGURE 2.1 Example of size and specific gravity distributions for coal: (A) overall size distribution (marginal); (B) size distribution for 1.25 specific gravity (conditional) shape of the particle and which particular dimension is being used (liameter of sphere; side, face diag- ‘onal, etc, of a cube; and so on). In general, we cannot define-a particle's size without first describing its shape. A more unique description of size could be obtained by considering the mass or volume of the le. However, because mass and volume can rarely be measured directly, atleast for very fine particles, and because the behavior of the particles depends on their shape, little advantage is gained from this approach. Describing particle shape is difficult; taking quantitative measurements is even more so. Regular shapes such as spheres, cubes, or tetrahedra can be described and quantified, but real particles very rarely fall into such categories and are most commonly described as “irregular.” In principle, any shape ‘can be described by fitting a mathematical function to it. For example, a two-dimensional image can be fitted to a Fourier’ series. For example, 1(8) = ay +a, sin 8 +a sin 20 +. (9.2.9) Where r is the radial vector, at some angle @, from the center of the image to some point on the periphery. The complete set of coefficients (ao, «1, a2, ..), in effect, defines the shape of the image. Because each coefficient is likely to be different for each particle, applying this approach to real systems is rarely practical.