Breakage mechanics—Part I: Theory

Different measures have been suggested for quantifying the amount of fragmentation in randomly compacted crushable aggregates. A most effective and popular measure is to adopt variants of Hardin's [1985. Crushing of soil particles. J. Geotech. Eng. ASCE 111(10), 1177-1192] definition of relative breakage ‘B_r’. In this paper we further develop the concept of breakage to formulate a new continuum mechanics theory for crushable granular materials based on statistical and thermomechanical principles. Analogous to the damage internal variable ‘D’ which is used in continuum damage mechanics (CDM), here the breakage internal variable ‘B’ is adopted. This internal variable represents a particular form of the relative breakage ‘B_r’ and measures the relative distance of the current grain size distribution from the initial and ultimate distributions. Similar to ‘D’, ‘B’ varies from zero to one and describes processes of micro-fractures and the growth of surface area. However, unlike damage that is most suitable to tensioned solid-like materials, the breakage is aimed towards compressed granular matter. While damage effectively represents the opening of micro-cavities and cracks, breakage represents comminution of particles. We term the new theory continuum breakage mechanics (CBM), reflecting the analogy with CDM. A focus is given to developing fundamental concepts and postulates, and identifying the physical meaning of the various variables. In this part of the paper we limit the study to describe an ideal dissipative process that includes breakage without plasticity. Plastic strains are essential, however, in representing aspects that relate to frictional dissipation, and this is covered in Part II of this paper together with model examples.     

Enhancement of energy efficiency for mechanical production of fine and ultra-fine particles in comminution

This paper presents the energy requirements for mechanical production of fine and ultra-fine particles in comminution. Recent approaches for effective size reduction and energy saving in comminution are described, viz., （a） development and application of new mills/classifiers, （b） adjustment of the bead characterization in stirred bead mills, （c） hybrid comminution systems with roller-press and media mill, （d） assisted methods, and （e） simulation.2007 Chinese Society of Particuology and Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V.     

聚苯乙烯/顺丁橡胶共混过程中的相结构

利用激光背散射装置结合密炼机对聚合物共混过程进行了在线分析．以典型完全不相容体系聚苯乙烯／顺丁橡胶为共混体系，对不同共混速度下结构参数随共混时间及共混条件如剪切速率等的变化进行了详细讨论．利用扫描电镜与激光背散射在线分析对聚合物共混过程结构参数变化进行了比较，结果显示聚苯乙烯／顺丁橡胶共混物处于熔融态与处于固态时结构基本相同．     

On comminution and yield in brittle granular mixtures

The mechanics of granular mixtures are pivotal in many industrial applications. Unravelling the relation between yielding and comminution, the action of mechanically induced grain size reduction, in confined mixture systems is a common and open challenge. This paper attacks this problem by adopting the breakage mechanics theory, which was originally proposed for single mineral materials. We present an extension to the theory that allows predicting: (1) the yielding pressure in granular mixtures, (2) the yield pressure increase/hardening with increasing breakage, and (3) the evolution of the grain size distributions of the separate species—all of these novel capabilities are tested and validated with experiments. Of particular appeal is the finding that the average yielding pressure is a simple generalized mean with an exponent −3/2 of the yielding pressures of the homogeneous components.     

Numerical investigation of a developmental pneumatically fed impact pulveriser

The current work has been carried out on a pneumatically fed impact pulveriser. A recent build of the proposed device, and early experiments have shown promising size reduction ratios and energy savings in comparison with conventional milling techniques.