UNIT-I

INTRODUCTION TO SOLID PARTICLES

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 Definition of single particle
According to scientific and technical terms particle is
defined as ‘a minute portion of matter’
Particles can be regular, irregular, homogeneous
particle or nonhomogeneous particle, they be organic
or inorganic molecules.

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 Particulate solids: Characteristics
Individual solids are characterized by :

•A particle shape may be regular, such as spherical or cubic

•It may be irregular like broken glass piece
Shape •Regular shapes are capable of precise definition by mathematical equations
•Properties of irregular particles are usually expressed in terms of some
particulate characteristics of a regular shaped particle

•Particle size is important in that affects properties as surface per unit

Size volume and the rate of at which particle will settle in fluid.
•Particle size ranges from millimeter to microns

•Composition determines the properties like density and conductivity,

Composition provided that the particle is completely uniform
•In some cases, particles may be porous, dense and matrix

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 Particulate Solids

Wood Chips Oil Seeds Salt

Sugar Yeast Urea

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 Particle shape
The shape of individual particles is often treated as spherical and it is
independent form particle size.

 The simplest shape of a particle: Sphere

 Sphere is symmetric.
 Orientation of sphere does not have to be considered, since the spherical
particle looks exactly the same from whatever direction it is viewed and
behaves in the same manner in a fluid, irrespective of its orientation.
 No other particle shape has this characteristic.
 Frequently, the size of a particle of irregular shape is defined in terms of the size of
an equivalent sphere

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 Particle Shape: Equivalent Sphere
Some of the important sizes of equivalent spheres are:
• The sphere of the same volume as the particle.
• The sphere of the same surface area as the particle.
• The sphere of the same surface area per unit volume as the particle.
• The sphere of the same area as the particle when projected on to a plane
perpendicular to its direction of motion.
• The sphere of the same projected area as the particle, as viewed from above,
when lying in its position of maximum stability such as on a microscope
slide for example.
• The sphere which will just pass through the same size of square aperture as
the particle, such as on a screen for example.
• The sphere with the same settling velocity as the particle in a specified fluid.

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 Measure of Particle Shape: Sphericity
 Sphericity is the measure of how closely the shape of an object approaches that of a
mathematically perfect sphere.
 Defined by Wadell in 1935 the sphericity, of a particle is the ratio of the surface area of a
sphere (with the same volume as the given particle) to the surface area of the particle.

De= equivalent diameter or nominal

diameter of particle
(The equivalent diameter is defined as the
Sphericity Φ= Surface area of sphere of same volume as particle
diameter of a sphere of equal volume.)
surface area of particle
Sp = surface area of one particle
Vp = volume of one particle

6𝑉𝑝 ….(1)
𝛷=
𝐷𝑝 ∗ 𝑆𝑝
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Measure of Particle Shape: Sphericity

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 Particle Size Distribution: Need

Why we need Particle Size Distribution?

• Large quantities of particles are handled on the industrial scale

• It is frequently necessary to define the system as a whole.
• It is necessary to know the distribution of particle sizes in the
mixture.
• It is necessary to define a mean size which in some way
represents the behaviour of the particulate mass as a whole in
the system.

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 Particle Size
• In general, "diameters" 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.
• Forneedle like particles, for example, size would refer to the thickness of the particles, not
their length.
• Conventionally, particle sizes are expressed in different units depending on the size range
involved.
• Coarse particles are measured in inches or millimetres.
• Fine particles in terms of screen size; very fine particles in micrometers or nanometers.
• Ultrafine particles are described in terms of their surface area per unit mass.

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 Particle Size Range
Particle size is characterized
using these terms:
i. Very coarse
ii. Coarse
iii. Moderately coarse
iv. Fine
v. Very fine

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Particle Size Range
Organic
WoodChips Magnetic Pigment
Pigment

Urea Ceramic
Powder CarbonBlack

Granulated Flour
Sugar

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 Effects of Particle Size

Particle size can influence variety of important factors:

• Dissolution rate
• Suspendability
• Uniform distribution
• Penetrability
• Chemical Reaction
• Heating and Combustion etc.
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 For defining particle shape
Sphericity : Based on surface area per unit
volume
Specific surface ratio: Based on surface area per
unit mass
Volume shape factor : Based on Volume

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 Particle diameter
• The term particle diameter as a quantitative measure of particle size should be
used with caution. The term diameter would be well representative of a spherical
particle, but real powder tend to be more irregular in shape with the distribution of
sizes and thus diameter may be interpreted differently by numerous operators. So
according to the property we can define the diameter of a particle while equating
this to the sphere.
• Equivalence of size means that the diameter assigned to an irregularly shaped
particle is the same diameter as that of a sphere which behaves identically when
both are exposed to the same process. So that is basically the meaning of
equivalence that it is, it should not affect the process while considering irregular
particle or spherical particle, the process in which it is involved it should not be
affected.

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 Surface area
 For catalyst particle we are considering the surface area is most controlling parameter. Therefore for
defining the size of catalyst we can use the surface diameter(𝒅𝒔 ) which will thus be defined as the
diameter of a spherical particle having same surface area as the particle.
if 𝐒𝐩 is the surface area of the particle
𝑆𝑝 =π𝒅𝟐𝒔
 Similarly in gravitational free settling , terminal settling velocity of a particle in a liquid is very much controlled
by the mass of particle. If the particle having more mass definitely it will fall through gravitation in short time
in comparison to the lighter mass. So mass is the controlling characteristic in this or for a given density its
volume.
we can therefore define the particle size of such a case by volumetric diameter that is 𝒅𝒗 which is once again
defined as the diameter of a spherical particle having same volume as the particle under consideration.
If 𝑽𝒑 is the volume of particle
𝜋𝒅𝟑𝒗
𝑽 =
𝒑 .
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 Surface area :
 Similarly if I am having is the dynamics of gas bubbles in a liquid or that of liquid drops in a
liquid or gas dependent not only on the bubble or drop volume but also on the interfacial
tension at the gas and liquid surface.

In this situation of dynamics of gas bubble the surface area along with the volume would be the
characteristic. So in this case we have defined sorter diameter and we have denoted this with 𝒅𝒗𝒔
it is defined as the bubble size which is based on volume surface diameter.
if Sp that is specific surface which is the surface area per unit volume of the particle
𝜋𝒅𝟐𝒗𝒔 6
𝑆𝑝 = 𝜋𝒅𝟑 =
𝒗𝒔 𝒅𝒗𝒔
6

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 Sepecific surface ratio (n)
It is defined as the ratio of the specific surface( surface area per unit mass) of the particle to
the specific surface of a spherical particle of the same diameter
Let the average size of the particle be 𝒅𝒂𝒗𝒈
𝑆𝑝
n= 6
ρ∗𝑑𝑎𝑣𝑔
ρ= density of particle

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 Volume shape factor (a)
This factor is used for calculating the volume of an irregular particle.
 We know that volume of the spherical particle is proportional to the cube root of its
diameter
 So if we assume the same for irregular particles then
𝑽𝒑 𝜶𝒅𝟑𝒂𝒗𝒈
𝑽𝒑 = 𝒂𝒅𝟑𝒂𝒗𝒈
Where “a” is called the constant proportionality which is called as
𝝅
volume shape factor = for spherical particles.
𝟔

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 Discussions
1. What is Φs? 1. sphericity
2. For a spherical particle of diameter Dp, Φs is ____ 2.1 6𝑉𝑝
3. For any non-spherical particle, Sphericity is defined as 3. 𝛷 =
𝐷𝑝 ∗ 𝑆𝑝
_____ 4.0.6 to 0.8
4. For a crushed material, Φs lies between _____ 5.0.81to 0.87
5. For cubes and cylinders, what is Φs? 6.n*sp
6. Find the total surface area of the particle when n=no. of 7. a*dp3
particles, Sp= specific surface ? 8.πd2
7. Volume of any particle, can be given as ______ 9.Sauter diameter
8. The surface are of the particle, is given as _____ 10.0.779
9. The Bubble or Drop size diameter, is referred to _____
10. Calculate the sphericity of a cylinder of dia 1 cm and
height 3 cm

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