Multiphase Systems:
Particle Engineering
Lecture 1, Part 5:
Particle Size Distributions II: Continuous Distributions
Kit Windows-Yule
Lecture 1 Learning Outcomes
An introduction to particle technology
Particle size
– How to define particle size
– How to measure particle size
– How to represent size distributions
Continuous Frequency
Distributions
The data and distributions we have looked at so far have
all been discrete
Most of us find discrete data (relatively!) easy to interpret
and work with
However, when faced with something more like:
many of us have less idea what is going on – or at least
find it harder to extract the meaning behind the maths…
This is something I will try and address in this mini-lecture!
Continuous Frequency
Distributions
Also as before,
area under
curve = 1!
As before, is the fraction per unit length ()
is the fraction of particles between
and
Continuous Frequency
Distributions
The cumulative
distribution gives
the fraction with a
size smaller than x
Question: what does gives us?
Cumulative sum!
What do these distributions tell us?
(Count) Mode
The most common
particle size
Q: Why do I
specify ‘count’?
A: Because I can
¿ 𝑑 90 − 𝑑 10 get the same values
Span for mass basis
𝑑 50
d10 d90
(Count) Median, ‘d50’
Some information can be
50% bigger, 50% smaller read straight off the graphs
Different Frequency Distribution
Functions Note: if particle density does
not vary, mass and volume
distributions are equivalent!
Number distribution,
– Fraction of particles in size range to
Mass distribution,
– Fraction of mass in size range to
Surface distribution,
– Fraction of surface in size range to
Volume distribution,
– Fraction of volume in size range to
As before, units are fraction per unit size.
Relations Between Distributions
Factor
relating linear
Number
distribution, Surface distribution, dimension to
surface area
Fraction of particles in Fraction of surface in size
size range to range to
If is total number of If surface area of 1 particle
particles… is …
Number of particles in Surface area of particles in
size range to is: size fraction to is:
Relations Between Distributions
Surface area of particles in size fraction to is:
Therefore the fraction of the total surface area can be
given as:
If
particle
i.e. shape is
independent of
particle size,
More specifically: and are all
constants
Exercise
Can you provide similar expressions for
the volume and mass distributions?
Converting Between Distributions
Question: What if I wanted to express the volume
distribution in terms of the surface distribution instead
of the number distribution?
Converting Between Distributions
Can also convert between other distributions
in the same manner.
– (I won’t make you do this, but it is a nice learning
exercise for later!)
Note that conversions assume that density
and shape are independent of size.
It is often undesirable to convert between
distributions as it can involve squaring or
cubing the error.
Back to mean particle sizes…
Recall from earlier, for discrete distributions:
The count (number) mean can similarly be
extracted from continuous data as:
From before,
Mass Mean
(Recall )
Constants
( cancel)
Surface Mean 𝑓 𝑠 ( 𝑥 ) =𝑘 𝑠 𝑥 2 𝑓 𝑁 ( 𝑥)
Constants
( cancel)
Surface Volume Mean
(Sauter Mean Diameter)
Conserves the total volume and total surface
area of the population, therefore:
and
From previous slides, we know that:
, and
Surface Volume Mean independent of
can take
(Sauter Mean Diameter) outside integral
∞
∫ 𝛼𝑉 𝑥
3
𝑁 𝑓 𝑁 ( 𝑥 ) 𝑑𝑥
𝛼𝑠 𝑉 𝛼𝑠 0
𝑥 𝑠𝑣 = = ∞
𝛼𝑉 𝑆 𝛼𝑉
∫ 𝛼 𝑠 𝑥2 𝑁 𝑓 𝑁 ( 𝑥 ) 𝑑𝑥
0
∞
∫ 𝑥3 𝑓 𝑁 ( 𝑥 ) 𝑑𝑥
0
→ 𝑥 𝑠𝑣 = ∞
2
∫ 𝑥 𝑓 𝑁 ( 𝑥 ) 𝑑𝑥
0
Look
familiar?
Concluding Remarks
Particulate materials are surprisingly
important
– And so is being able to quantify their
size!
Concluding Remarks
Lots of definitions…
– …of size
– …of mean size
– Important to choose the right
diameter/mean for the situation
– Important to ensure measures
used are the same in comparative
situations!
Concluding Remarks
A bitof practice looking at and
manipulating continuous size
distributions
– Hopefully they now seem a bit less
daunting…
– …and you might even begin to see
the beauty in them!
