Measurement of Granule Attrition and Fatigue in a Vibrating Box

This paper describes a new test machine that has been designed to measure the strength of single particles in the size range of 10²–10³ μm. The device is a vibrating box that subjects each particle in the sample to a large number of impacts of known but variable strength. By tracking the size and shape of the particles as a function of the number of impacts, their strength characteristics against the mechanisms of fracture, fatigue and attrition can be differentiated. The number of particles tested in one sample is restricted in order to make any particle‐particle interaction negligible but is sufficiently large that the distribution of these characteristics can be determined.     

Particle Shapes Produced by Comminution in the Szego Mill

The shapes of particles produced by comminution in the Szego Mill, a planetary ringroller mill, in different coal grinding operations show that particle shape is dependent on the type of operation, and help explain the breakage mechanisms. Dry grinding produces particles with a low aspect ratio due to interparticle attrition; significant briquetting of fine particles may occur. In slurry grinding flaky particles are produced which are selected for breakage at rates lower than those for granular particles. Similar observations have been made with other materials. Coal-oil-water grinding is accompanied by the formation of coal-oil agglomerates. Their breakage produces uniform particles with a low aspect ratio due to interparticle attrition within the agglomerates.     

A New Apparatus for Particle Impact Tests

Breakage and chipping of particles due to collision with a hard surface is a common occurrence in many conveying and handling systems, such as pneumatic conveying and jet‐mills. Studies of the breakage mechanism of particles due to impact and the effect of impact velocity and the number of impacts have been investigated in depth both experimentally and theoretically. In this paper, a new concept and apparatus are introduced for conducting particle impact tests. In most of the published test rigs, particles were accelerated towards a target. In our apparatus, the target moves and hits the particles. Using this concept, the machine can operate in a vacuum, which will reduce errors caused by air streams and turbulence. The performance of the new apparatus is analyzed and the breakage phenomenon is discussed, to some extent, for two materials. The results are presented in terms of the increase in the weight percentage of the feed broken and the decrease in the weight median size as the impact velocity or number of impacts increases.     

湿颗粒堆力学特性的离散元法模拟研究

利用基于线性黏聚接触模型的离散元法对不同颗粒系统的堆积过程进行了数值模拟研究,分析了颗粒形状和湿颗粒间液桥力对颗粒堆积形态的影响机理,获得了球形和块状湿颗粒堆基底表面所受的法向力以及堆中颗粒间的法向力和切向力"中心凹陷"式的分布规律,讨论了颗粒形状和黏聚能量密度对基底表面作用力和颗粒间作用力的影响.研究结果表明,颗粒形状和液桥力对颗粒堆的堆积形态具有显著的影响.堆积角随着黏聚能量密度的增加而增大,并且相同条件下的块状颗粒堆积角大于球形颗粒.颗粒形状和黏聚能量密度对基底表面所受作用力和堆中颗粒间的作用力变化及最大幅值均有影响作用.当黏聚能量密度值逐渐增大时,颗粒堆的作用力最大幅值均逐渐增大,并且块状颗粒堆的作用力最大幅值大于球形颗粒堆.当黏聚能量密度值过大时,颗粒堆力学特性更加复杂,液桥力对颗粒堆积特性的影响作用大于颗粒形状的影响.     

The Effect of Boundary Conditions on Gas-phase Synthesised Silver Nanoparticles

We have prepared spherical non-agglomerated silver nanoparticles by an evaporation–condensation–dilution/cooling technique. Silver was evaporated from a crucible in a tubular flow reactor. A porous tube diluter was used to quench the carrier gas at the outlet of the reactor to enhance the formation of small particles and to suppress agglomeration and other particle growth mechanisms. The number size distribution of the prepared particles was measured with a differential mobility analyser–condensation nucleus counter combination and the size and the shape of the particles were analysed with transmission electron microscope. The system was modelled using a sectional aerosol dynamics computer code to estimate the importance of different aerosol processes. In all conditions the particles obtained were non-agglomerated and spherical. The mean particle diameter varied from 4 to 10-nm depending on boundary conditions. From the modelling studies it can be concluded that the nucleation rate is the most important parameter controlling the final particle size.     

Milling of Organic Solids in a Jet Mill. Part 2: Checking the Validity of the Predicted Rate of Breakage Function

The particle size distribution of fine chemicals in the solid state, like active pharmaceutical ingredients, is often a critical parameter. To achieve the desired particle size distribution, milling of such materials is usually the method of choice. Since these chemicals are often scarcely available, experimental optimization of milling is not possible. Therefore, a model to predict the milling conditions has been developed. The model estimates the rate of breakage function, and needs mechanical properties like hardness and yield strength as input to calculate the rate of breakage function. This paper attempts to check the validity of the model by a series of experiments. A comparison of the experimental results with the outcomes of the model using five different model compounds has been performed. It appears that the rate of breakage function can be estimated by: The model is able to rank the compounds by degree of fracture as an effect of milling. It was also possible to perform a quantitative prediction of the impact of milling pressure on the milling behavior. Finally, it appeared that the prediction of the large particles in the distribution was significantly better than small ones. Because the oversized material is usually the most critical parameter, the conclusion is that the model has acceptable practical applicability.     

吸入性氚化粒子在人体肺部组织中吸收剂量的研究

涉氚核设施在检修及退役时,其产生的氚化粒子容易被工作人员误吸入,并在呼吸系统的不同部位停留,部分尺寸较小的粒子可能在肺泡间质区(AI 区) 停留超过1 年的时间。氚粒子通过 衰变释放电子,在释放电子的同时以及释放的电子与周围原子相互作用还会分别产生出内、外轫致辐射,这些都会对人体肺部组织造成辐射损伤。本文采用蒙特卡罗程序PENELOPE 对多种氚化粒子在人体肺部组织中的吸收剂量进行了模拟计算,特别是讨论了氚 衰变的内轫致辐射的贡献。研究发现,电子辐射对人体肺泡产生的吸收剂量大于外、内轫致辐射,但后两者作用距离较长,对人体造成的影响重要;电子辐射吸收剂量随着粒子尺寸的增大以及金属原子序数的增大而减小;外轫致辐射吸收剂量随着粒子尺寸的增大而减小,随着金属原子序数的增大而增大;内轫致辐射吸收剂量随着粒子尺寸的增大以及金属原子序数的增大而减小。Some tritium relevant nuclear facilities, such as Tokamak, can produce tritiated particles. There is the possibility for the staffs to inhale the tritiated particles by accident in the process of maintenance or decommission of these facilities. Tritium decays to 3He, during which the beta electron and the internal bremsstrahlung are released. Meanwhile, the released electrons will interact with the surrounding atoms, and the external bremsstrahlung will be generated. All the electrons, internal bremsstrahlung and external bremsstrahlung will deposit the radiation energies to lung tissues and generate the radiation damage. In this paper we studied the radiation doses by inhaled tritiated particles in lung tissues by Monte Carlo code PENELOPE, in particular, internal bremsstrahlung contribution was included. Our results demonstrated that (1) the dose caused by electron radiation is far higher than those of external and internal bremsstrahlung, which however shall not be negligible due to their long-distance effects; (2) the dose caused by electron radiation decreases as the particle size and metal atomic number Z increase; (3) the dose caused by external bremsstrahlung decreases as the particle size increases, but increases as the metal Z increases; (4) the dose caused by internal bremsstrahlung decreases as the particle size and metal Z increase.     

Effects of particle/matrix interface and strengthening mechanisms on the mechanical properties of metal matrix composites

A randomly distributed multi-particle model considering the effects of particle/matrix interface and strengthening mechanisms introduced by the particles has been constructed. Particle shape, distribution, volume fraction and the particles/matrix interface due to the factors including element diffusion were considered in the model. The effects of strengthening mechanisms, caused by the introduction of particles on the mechanical properties of the composites, including grain refinement strengthening, dislocation strengthening and Orowan strengthening, are incorporated. In the model, the particles are assumed to have spheroidal shape, with uniform distribution of the centre, long axis length and inclination angle. The axis ratio follows a right half-normal distribution. Using Monte Carlo method, the location and shape parameters of the spheroids are randomly selected. The particle volume fraction is calculated using the area ratio of the spheroids. Then, the effects of particle/matrix interface and strengthening mechanism on the distribution of Mises stress and equivalent strain and the flow behaviour for the composites are discussed.     

部分状粒子处理方法及其对云微物理参数测量的影响

作为云微物理过程测量的重要利器,机载云降水粒子成像仪在云降水物理与人工影响天气研究中具有重要的作用.从采样结果来看,机载云降水粒子成像仪所测粒子图像中含有大量的粒子图像仅是粒子的一部分而已,即部分状粒子.因其数量较多,对该类粒子所选处理方法不同,会引起测量结果的很大差异.本文介绍并分析了现有部分状粒子处理方法的优劣,通过对部分状粒子的再定义与粒子形状分类,提出了一个融合粒子形状识别技术、"粒径重构"和"中心在内"方法的新的部分状粒子处理方法;利用实测数据,对所提方法与现有方法进行了云微物理参量处理结果的对比,发现本文所提方法与"粒径重构"方法处理结果比较一致,能较好地克服"整体在内"与"中心在内"两种方法存在的缺陷;同时,在针柱状粒子占比较多情形下,本文所提方法要比"粒径重构"方法处理后的结果相对合理.因此本文所提方法对仪器所测粒子数据处理具有更好的适应性.     

Spray flow-network flow transition of binary Lennard-Jones particle system

We simulate gas-liquid flows caused by rapid depressurization using a molecular dynamics model. The model consists of two types of Lennard-Jones particles, which we call liquid particles and gas particles. These two types of particles are distinguished by their mass and strength of interaction: a liquid particle has heavier mass and stronger interaction than a gas particle. By simulations with various initial number densities of these particles, we found that there is a transition from a spray flow to a network flow with an increase of the number density of the liquid particles. At the transition point, the size of the liquid droplets follows a power-law distribution, while it follows an exponential distribution when the number density of the liquid particles is lower than the critical value. The comparison between the transition of the model and that of models of percolation is discussed. The change of the average droplet size with the initial number density of the gas particles is also presented.     

Automatic detection of colloidal particles based on a shape regularized integrated active contour model

Manual segmentation of single colloidal particle in suspension encounters a bottleneck when a number of defocused particles simultaneously exist in an image. In this paper, we describe an image processing algorithm for extracting individual particle from digitized microscope images of colloidal suspensions. We propose a particle detection and location solution using a shape regularized integrated active contour model (ACM). Compared with existing methods where active contour models are not applied well to deal with multiple objects in complicated background, the proposed approach can automatically identify and locate multiple particles by combining characteristics of the particles such as shape, boundary and region. A regularization term is defined by prior information of specific shape, which is able to drive the shape of evolving curve toward the shape prior gradually. To locate the centers of the particles, the Hough transform is applied. Experimental results using polystyrene beads as sample particles reveal that the method has high efficiency and ability to deal with colloidal particles.     

A Multi‐Electrode Approach for On‐Line Characterisation of Size and Shape

A multi‐electrode approach is proposed for on‐line characterisation of particle size and shape in dilute particulate suspensions. Based on an electrozone principle, the approach uses four electrodes in a tube rather than two electrodes across an aperture employed in conventional methods. The outer two electrodes are used for current injection, while the inner two electrodes yield voltage measurement. A sensor designed in this way can reduce errors of false counts and oversizing that may occur in conventional methods, thus providing more accurate particle sizing. It is also possible to use the signal slope along with signal peak for particle size and shape characterisation. Both theoretical modelling and experiments were conducted, showing that particle aspect ratio along with particle diameter can be obtained, for example, for cylindrical particles.     

Size and Shape Analysis of Sedimentary Grains by Automated Dynamic Image Analysis

The application of Automated Dynamic Image Analysis (ADIA) for measuring the size and shape of sedimentary grains is presented. This technique determines the size and shape of a large number of particles (typically 5,000 to 50,000 or greater) in the size range between 10 to 1,500 μm. ADIA measurements are carried out using a RapidVue particle analyzer. The size and shape of particles are obtained by analyzing digital images. Each image is composed of shapes representing two‐dimensional projections of particles. The analysis yields the area and perimeter of each particle cross‐section, which are transformed into size‐independent shape values. The analysis of such a large number of particles results in a very small statistical variation of the results, ca. 0.3% for 50,000 particles. Since operator selection of images does not enter the measurement procedure, the risk of bias caused by subjective sample selection is eliminated. The combination of ADIA with a two‐dimensional Kolmogorov‐Smirnov test, allows the identification of similarities and differences between sedimentary grains.     

圆截面直流道中微粒黏弹性聚焦机理研究

微粒黏弹性聚焦技术近年来受到了广泛的研究重视, 但影响粒子聚焦特性的关键参数调控机理仍不清楚. 基于此目的, 本文量化研究了圆截面直流道中非牛顿流体诱导微粒黏弹性聚焦的行为, 给出了流速和流道长度对粒子聚焦特性的调控机理. 具体而言: 首先, 对比分析不同黏度牛顿流体(水和22 wt%甘油水溶液)和非牛顿流体(8 wt%聚乙烯吡咯烷酮水溶液)中粒子横向迁移行为, 发现非牛顿流体中粒子将在弹性力主导下聚焦至流道中心区域, 而牛顿流体中粒子则在惯性升力主导下迁移形成Segré-Silberberg圆环. 其次, 量化分析粒子尺寸和驱动流速对黏弹性聚焦效果的影响, 发现随着流速的增加, 粒子聚焦效果逐渐变好并最终趋于稳定, 且大粒子较小粒子具有更好的聚焦效果. 最后, 研究粒子沿流道长度的动态聚焦过程, 推导并验证了粒子聚焦所需安全流道长度的数学模型, 发现大粒子聚焦所需安全流道长度显著短于小粒子. 上述研究结果对于提升粒子黏弹性聚焦机理和过程的理解, 实现微粒聚焦特性的灵活控制具有非常重要的意义.     

Collective diffusion in a two-dimensional liquid composed of Janus particles

The collective diffusion of anisotropic particles in liquids plays a crucial role in many processes, such as self-assembly. The patchy particle, which is usually nearly spherical in shape, is an important anisotropic particle with different properties from other anisotropic particles like the ellipsoid liquid crystal particles. In the present study, molecular dynamics simulations are performed to study the collective diffusion of a two-dimensional anisotropic liquid system composed of Janus particles. The static structures and diffusion behaviours of anisotropic and isotropic Lennard-Jones liquids are compared. The long-time diffusion behaviour of an anisotropic liquid of nearly spherical Janus particles is found to be similar to that of an isotropic liquid because the orientation of the particles disappears over long-term averaging. The anisotropic properties of the Janus particles are mainly reflected in the spatial correlation of particle orientations and mid-time diffusion behaviour. The difference between nearly spherical anisotropic particles and rod-like particles is also discussed in this paper.     

冲击波作用下微米尺度金属颗粒群的动力学行为

基于平面化爆驱动飞片高压加载技术和激光测速技术,研究了冲击波加载不同粒径锡颗粒群的微喷射行为以及在空气中的减速规律.实验结果表明,锡颗粒的最快喷射速度随粒径增大而显著增大.通过对微喷射形成过程的三维光滑粒子流体动力学方法数值模拟发现,大粒径锡颗粒之间存在较大的空隙结构,冲击波与空隙结构的相互作用诱导产生高速汇聚射流,空隙结构越大对应的喷射速度也越高.此外,通过研究不同粒径颗粒在复杂流场中的减速规律,进一步深化了对微喷射破碎后的颗粒尺度状态以及混合输运特性的认识.研究结果对于预测和分析冲击波加载微米颗粒群的微喷混合特性具有一定价值.     

Light absorption by island metal films in the infrared range

This study reports on theoretical investigations of the electric and magnetic absorption of small metallic particles as functions of their shape, with the wavelength of incident e/m radiation assumed to be much greater than the size of the particles. A general expression for the absorption cross-section is derived for the cases when both the bulk and surface electron scattering are dominant. In the IR-region the absorption cross-section is shown to be extremely sensitive to the shape of particles; for particles of a constant volume, yet different in shape, it can change by several orders of magnitude. It is also shown that under dominant surface scattering the optical conductivity of an asymmetric particle is described by a tensor whose principal values are calculated for the ellipsoidal shape. The expression obtained for the electric and magnetic absorption renders ground to infer that the ratio of the contributions due to these absorption mechanisms greatly depends on the shape of particles and polarization of light.     

电解质浓度对胶体粒子表面有效电荷的影响

胶体粒子的表面有效电荷是决定胶体性质的重要物理量,但溶液环境(如电解质溶液浓度)是否影响其数值至今尚无统一认识,近年来的一些研究工作给出了存在争议的不同结果和假设.在直接实验测量方面,由于电解质离子和胶体表面吸附离子的置换,粒子表面基团的不完全电离和胶体粒子对离子吸附的共同作用,使得对这类粒子在不同溶液环境下的表面有效电荷的测量和变化机理的认识极为困难.针对该问题,本文测定了羧基和磺酸基修饰的聚苯乙烯胶体颗粒在不同粒子浓度和HCl浓度下的电导率,由于两种粒子与HCl电离产生的阳离子相同(均为H+),可根据电导率-数密度法(迁移法)得到胶体颗粒表面有效电荷数.通过实验结果分析,明确了HCl浓度以及粒子数密度对胶体粒子表面电荷的影响规律以及表面电荷随HCl浓度增大的原因.除此之外,羧基修饰颗粒比磺酸基修饰颗粒的表面电荷随HCl浓度变化更快;对于同一HCl浓度,磺酸基修饰胶体表面电荷不受粒子数密度影响,而羧基修饰胶体颗粒却与之相关.基于粒子表面电荷的理论模型,对这些问题都给出了相应的解释.     

Particle Sizes of Fumed Oxides: A New Approach Using PCS Signals

Fumed oxides produced in gas‐phase processes, such as silicas and aluminum oxide, consist of a cluster of aggregated primary particles. The aggregate size of these particles is an important variable in many applications. However, current procedures for measuring particle sizes all assume that the particles have a spherical shape and are thus not truly capable of determining aggregate size. The results of such particle size measurements are consequently called “equivalent spherical diameter” (ESD), but these results vary from method to method. This publication shows that it is feasible to use the number of primary particles per aggregate, rather than the ESD, as a measure for the particle size of clusters of this type. The method is based on dynamic light scattering (photon correlation spectroscopy, PCS), which has proven itself in the analysis of fumed oxides. A numerical simulation based on random, computer‐generated model aggregates is used to modify the well‐known Stokes‐Einstein equation so that the number of primary particles can be determined.