PERMEAMETRY

Permeametry is a method by which the diameter of certain characteristic particles that are too small to
be analyzed by conventional methods can be determined. In other words, is a laboratory test procedure
for determining the specific surface of finely divided solids. This method consists of measuring the
pressure drop per unit of flow, allowing the passage of some fluid (laminar flow of air or other liquid)
that have the fine particles through a solid or a compacted powder bed with known dimensions and
establishing parameters such as depth of the bed, the fluid viscosity and the superficial fluid velocity
to calculate the diameter of the particle.

Here we must highlight the complexity of this method; In spite of being fundamental for the industry,
from the point of view of quality, this requires technical - scientific knowledge for its
implementation-, such as porosity, permeability, bedding, flow behavior in porous beds among others

EQUIPMENT

The instrument used to carry out the procedure is the permeameter. There are two common types of
permeameter:

-The steady flow system, exemplified by the Fisher Sub-Sieve Sizer, has been standardized for use
with powdered metals. With this equipment the specific surface area of powders is determined, from
which is calculated an "average" particle diameter or Fisher Number. (For particles having diameters
between 0,5 y 50 μm).

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-The transient flow system, exemplified by the Blaine Fineness Tester, has been standardized for use
on portland cement. This equipment is used in measuring the fineness of cement in terms of the
specific area of cement expressed as total surface area in square centimeters per gram.
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The two systems are equivalent and yield identical results when properly calibrated, but only when the
test sample beds are measured at the same bed porosity.

PERMEABILITY AND THE KOZENY-CARMAN RELATIONSHIP

One method used to calculate the diameter of the particle is to apply the the Kozeny-Carman
Relationship. ​In this method, the pressure gradient across a packed bed of known voidage is measured
as a function of flow rate. The diameter we calculate from the Carman–Kozeny equation is the
arithmetic mean of the surface distribution.
The Carman–Kozeny equation for laminar flow through a randomly packed bed of uniformly sized
spheres of diameter x is:

where (-Dp) the pressure drop across the bed,eis the packed bed void fraction, H is the depth of the
bed, m is the fluid viscosity and U is the superficial fluid velocity.

APLICATIONS AND ADVANTAGE

This measurement method is used to:

● One of the main applications is in the measurement of the diameter of cement particles, which
are too thin and should be measured by this method.
● Particle measurement in the lime, and powdered sugar production industry.
● Determination of the dynamic specific surface area of a highly porous material, such as
metallic foams.
● Characterization of the specific surface area of coarse particulate solids, 100-1000 pm,
necessary for some pharmaceutical applications.

This technique has the ​advantage of being easy to carry out and also of allowing evaluation of the
surface area actually offered to fluid flow. This surface area is of particular interest for engineering
applications because it corresponds to the surface area where momentum, heat or mass transfers occur
during fluid flow.
https://sci-hub.tw/https://doi.org/10.1016/0301-7516(74)90027-1

Ramirez, A., Campos, F., & Zapata, F. (2016). ​Permeametría.​ Cabimas: Instituto
Universitario de Tecnología de Cabimas.