Criteria for Comminution

An Ideal crusher or grinder will have:

1) large capacity 2) require a small power input per unit product

3) Yield product of single size or desired size distribution

Characteristics of comminuted product:

Unlike ideal cusher, actual crushers does not yield uniform product irrespective
of feed uniformity.

Products always consists of mixture of particles, ranging from definite max. Size
to very small particles.

Machines are usually designed to control bigger size particles, but fines are either not
Controlled, in some cases may be minimised...

If feed is homogeneous, i.e., shape/chemical/physical structure, then product shape is

uniform, otherwise product shape may vary even though size is appox. Uniform

Ratio of largest to smallest particle is of the order of 104

Always avg. Size is estimated, using specific well defined averaging methods..
Crushing Efficiency

The ratio of surface energy created by crushing to the energy absorbed by the solid is
the crushing efficiency ηc

es is the surface energy per unit area in ft.lbf/sq.ft (from solid state theories)
Awb and Awa area per unit mass of product and feed respectively.
Wn is energy absorbed by unit mass of material

W – Energy input (in terms of mechanical force) in ft.lbf or J

ηm – Mechanical Efficiency
Surface energy created by fracture is usually small than mechanical energy input or stored in
material @ time of rupture, because most of the mech. energy is transformed to heat..

Part of input mech. Energy is also wasted to overcome friction..

Due to this Crushing efficiency are usually low.. Can be as low as 0.06 to 1 %

If m is feed rate, power required by the machine for size reduction is

Rittinger’s Law — The energy required for reduction in particle size of a solid is
directly proportional to the increase in surface area.
      
    P/ ṁ = KR (1/¯Dsb– 1/¯Dsa)

Kick’s Law — The amount of energy required to crush a given quantity of

material to a specified fraction of its original size is the same, regardless of the
original size.
      
P/ ṁ = KK ln(¯Dsa/¯Dsb)

This is based on plastic deformation within elastic limit...

Bond’s Law: The work required to form particles from very large feed is
proportional to the square root of the surface-to-volume ratio.