CHARACTERIZATION

OF SOLID PARTICLES
CHARACTERIZATION OF
SOLID PARTICLES
Individual solid particulate are characterized by their:
1. Size
2. Shape
3. Density
 Particles of homogeneous solids have the same density as the bulk materials.
 Particles obtained by breaking up composite solid, such as a whole plant (root, trunk
and leafy), have various densities, usually different from the density of the bulk
material.
 Size and shape are easily specified for regular particle, such as spheres and cubes, but
for irregular particles (such as coarse grains or flakes) that size and shape are not so
clear and must be arbitrarily defined.
PARTICLE SHAPE
 The shape of individual particle is conveniently present in term
of the sphericity, which is independent of particle size.
 The equivalent diameter is sometimes defined as the diameter of
a sphere of the equal volume.
 For fine granular materials, however. It is difficult to determine
the exact volume and surface area of the particles, and the
diameter is usually taken to be the nominal size based on screen
analyses or microscope examination.
SPHERICITY
Sphericity is a measure of how spherical an object is.
Proposed by Waddell in 1935,
Sphericity of a particle is defined as the ratio of the surface area of
an equal-volume sphere to the actual surface area of the particle:
where Vp is volume of the particle and Ap is the surface area of the
particle.
FINE GRANULAR MATERIAL
SHAPES
PARTICLE SHAPES
PARTICLE SIZE
In general “ diameter” may be specified for any equidimensional
particle.
Particles that are not equidimensional, i.e., that are longer in one
direction than in others, are often characterized by the second
longest major dimension.
For needlelike particles for example the diameter refer to the
thickness of the particles, not their length.
PARTICLE SIZE
METHODS OF PARTICLE SIZE
ANALYSIS
 Sieve analysis
 Image analysis – either static or dynamic
 Static light scattering or laser diffraction
 Dynamic light scattering
SIEVE ANALYSIS
Sieve analysis is, at least at first glance, the simplest method for particle size
analysis. This method is used to determine the grain size distribution of
organic and inorganic bulk materials (powders, granules, etc.) and is suitable
for particle sizes ranging from several micrometers to several millimeters or
even centimeters.
Sieve analysis is a basic, cost-effective particle size analysis method. In a
sieve tower mounted onto a sieve machine, test sieves are arranged one above
the other, and the mesh size decreases from top to bottom. The movement of
the sieve machine (vibrating, shaking, tapping, etc.) causes the bulk material
to pass through the different screens (dry screening) and to separate according
to particle size.
APPLICATION AND
DISADVANTAGES
Sieve analysis is used in the food, pharmaceutical and chemical
industries for production and quality control of powdered and
granular bulk materials. Particle size matters for the properties of
many of these industries’ products, for example the strength of
concrete, the taste of chocolate, the dissolution behavior of tablets
or the flowability and dissolution behavior of washing powders.
It involves many manual tasks, which are all potential sources of
error. Nor should the time required for initial weighing, sieving,
backweighing, calculating the result and cleaning the sieves be
underestimated.
SIEVES OR MESHES AND
SIEVE SHAKER
U.S. SIEVE SIZE
 SIEVE ANALYSIS (DRY SOIL
SAMPLE = 450 G)
CUMULATIVE AND
DIFFERENTIAL ANALYSIS
IMAGE ANALYSIS
Two different image analysis methods are available
to characterize particles by image analysis:
Static image analysis (SIA)
Dynamic image analysis (DIA).
IMAGE ANALYSIS
SIZE AND SHAPE FROM
PICTURES
DATA EVALUATION
STATIC IMAGE ANALYSIS
For static image analysis, the sample to be measured is
placed on a slide and evaluated under a microscope. This
method, however, is usually only applied for very small
sample quantities.
Disadvantage: The quality and optical resolution of the
individual images, although very high, is not sufficient to
obtain a statistically relevant overview of the entire
sample. This method is also very time-consuming and
delivers only a few individual images.
DISPERSING A SAMPLE
For static image analysis, want to spread particles out so that they don’t touch.
 STATIC IMAGE ANALYSIS
1. Particles are dispersed (isolated) on a surface
2. Picture are taken from stationary particles
3. Camera or surface with particles is shifted,
multiple images are taken from different positions,
images are processed and evaluated
4. High resolution images is possible
5. Number of images/particles is limited (because of
time limitations)
6. Preferred orientation of the particles on the surface
(largest 2D)
DYNAMIC IMAGE ANALYSIS
In contrast, dynamic image analysis for particle sizes above 1 µm provides
fast and precise data for the particle size analysis of powders, granules and
pellets, but also for particles in a suspension. A camera captures digital
images of a particle stream (either in free fall, in a jet of compressed air or in
a liquid stream), which are then used by dedicated software to record the
length and width of each individual particle, as well as to map its shape. This
method is used particularly for quality control in the pharmaceutical industry,
but is also becoming established in more and more industries and laboratories
for routine determination of particle size and shape.
Disadvantage: Appropriate algorithms are often needed to reliably correlate
DIA data and sieve data (which is actually more of an additional expense or
effort than a disadvantage).
DYNAMIC IMAGE ANALYSIS
Particles flow through the measurement volume of the
instrument and the field of view of the camera
• Particles are captured during movement, no other
moving parts necessary
• Capturing of many particle images in a short time
interval
• Limitations because of image rate of the camera(s)
• Image quality is (a bit) worse
• Particles are projected in random orientation (3D)
FREE FLOWING POWDER