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Average Particle Size

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AJITHA K CHERIAN
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60 views3 pages

Average Particle Size

Uploaded by

AJITHA K CHERIAN
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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AVERAGE PARTICLE SIZE

METHOD I

EDMUNDSON’S EQUATION FOR COMPUTING STATISTICAL DIAMETERS FROM


NUMBER AND WEIGHT DISTRIBUTIONS

The size of a sphere is readily expressed in terms of its diameter. As the degree of asymmetry of particles
increases, it becomes difficult to express the size in terms of a meaningful diameter. Under these
conditions, there is no one unique diameter for a particle. Instead one must made of an equivalent
spherical diameter, which relates the size of the particle to the diameter of a sphere having the same
surface area, volume, or diameter.

Thus,

the surface diameter, ds is the diameter of a sphere having the same surface area as the particle in
question.The diameter of a sphere having the same volume as the particle is the volume diameter, dv
while the projected diameter, dP is the diameter of a sphere having the same observed area as the particle
when viewed normal to its most stable plane. The size may also be expressed as the Stokes diameter, dst
which describes an equivalent sphere undergoing sedimentation at the same rate as the asymmetric
particle.

Invariabiy, the type of diameter used reflects the method employed to obtain the diameter. The projected
diameter is obtained by microscopic techniques, while the Stokes diameter is determined from sedimen-
tation studies on the suspended particles.

Any collection of particles is usually polydisperse. It is therefore necessary to know not only the size of a
certain particle, but also how many particles of the same size exist in the sample. Thus, we need an
estimate of the size range present and the number or weight fraction of each particle size. This is the
particle size distribution, and from this we may calculate an average particle size for the sample.

Suppose we have conducted a microscopic examination of a sample of a powder and recorded the number
of particles lying within various size ranges. In order to compare these values with those from, say, a
second batch of the same material, we usually compute an average or mean diameter as our basis for
comparison.

Edmundson has derived a general equation for the average particle size, whether it be an arithmetic,
geometric, or harmonic mean diameter.

dmean = ∑nd p+f 1/p


--------------- (1)

∑ndf

Where

n is the number of particles in a size range whose midpoint, d, is one of the equivalent diameters
mentioned previously.
p is an index related to the size of an individual particle, since d raised to the power p = 1, p= 2, or p = 3
is an expression of the particle length, surface, or volume, respectively.The value of the index p also
decides whether the mean is arithmetic (p is positive), geometric (p is zero), or harmonic (p is negative).

For a collection of particles, the frequency with which a particle in a certain size range occurs is
expressed by ndf. When the frequency index, f has values of 0, 1, 2, or 3, then the size frequency
distribution is expressed in terms of the total number, length, surface or volume of the particles, respec-
tively.

Some of the more significant arithmetic (p is positive) mean diameters are shown in Table. These are
based on the values of p and f used in equation 1.
p+f 1/p
∑nd p f Type of Size Frequency Mean
mean Parameter Diameter
∑ndf

∑nd 1 0 Arithmetic Length Number Length-


number
∑n mean, dln
2 1/2
∑nd 2 0 Arithmetic Surface Number Surface-
number
∑n mean, dsn
3 1/3
∑nd 3 0 Arithmetic Volume Number Volume-
number
∑n mean, dvn
2
∑nd 1 1 Arithmetic Length Length Length-
weighted
∑nd mean
3
∑nd 1 2 Arithmetic Length Surface Surface-
weighted
∑nd 2 mean
4
∑nd 1 3 Arithmetic Length Weight Volume-
weighted
∑nd 3 mean

size index p = 1 means length is considered as a size parameter

size index p = 2 means surface is considered as a size parameter


size index p = 3 means volume is considered as a size parameter

Frequency index f = 0 means number is considered as a frequency parameter


Frequency index f= 1 means length is considered as a frequency parameter
Frequency index f = 2 means surface is considered as a frequency parameter
Frequency index f = 3 means weight is considered as a frequency parameter

METHOD II

HATCH-CHOATE EQUATIONS FOR COMPUTING STATISTICAL DIAMETERS FROM


NUMBER AND WEIGHT DISTRIBUTIONS

Diameter Number Distribution Weight Distribution

Length number mean log dln = log dg + 1.151 log² бg log dln = log d’g - 5.757 log² бg

Surface-number mean log dsn = log dg + 2.303 log² бg log dsn = log d’g - 4.606 log² бg

Volume-number mean log dvn = log dg + 3.454 log² бg log dvn = log d’g - 3.454 log² бg

Volume-surface mean log dvs = log dg + 5.575 log² бg log dvs = log d’g - 1.151 log² бg

Weight moment mean log dwm = log dg + 8.059 log² бg log dwm = = log d’g + 1.151 log² бg

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