Chapter 2

Size Reduction
 Size reduction

• Mechanical process of converting larger particles into smaller ones

• Purpose : to increase surface area, more absorption capacity, easy to mix, and to
have low crystallinity
• The following factors must be satisfied for the size reduction operation to be
successful:
• The amount and size of material supplied into the size reduction machine
• The type of end product required after milling
• The qualities of the grains undergoing size reduction are critical in determining
the type of milling equipment required.
 Stress-Strain Behavior during Size Reduction

• It helps in understanding the behaviour of solids under applied stress

• Elastic deformation (E):
• the ability of the material to revert to its original dimension on the removal of applied stress,
• The material is obeying Hooke’s law (stress and strain are proportional to each other for small
deformations)
• Yield point (Y):
• If the applied stress is increased a little bit beyond proportional limit E, the strain developed is not
proportional to stress;
• however, the material still returns to its original dimension on the removal of stress.
• The point Y on the curve is called elastic limit or yield point
• Beyond Y, the material undergoes permanent deformation (plastic deformation)
• If the applied stress is continued further, the material is finally ruptured at fracture point (point F).
Stress-Strain Behavior during Size Reduction
Size reduction
mechanisms
Hard solids to Coarse sizes

Coarse, medium and fine sizes

Fine sizes

To give definite sizes

 Important properties of material for size reduction

• Toughness: Toughness is defined as the resistance of the product to impact force

• Hardness:
• The term hardness refers to a material’s resistance to impact, abrasion, or
scratching.
• The hardness of the materials determines the power consumption and type of
milling operation required.
• The resistance of the grain to deformation is another way to describe hardness
• Friability:
• Friability is the tendency of grains to chip, disintegrate, or fracture after
compression.
• Friability test is usually done to check the extent to which the grains can
withstand the mechanical stress during postharvest handling of the materials
 Important properties of material for size reduction

• Crystallinity:
• The degree of structural organization in a grains or solid materials determines crystallinity.
• Before milling, some pretreatment can be performed to reduce crystallinity and achieve
energetic and economic feasibility with better mechanical and rheological characteristics of
milled goods
• Sensitivity- Temperature: The heat created during milling by friction between the mill
surface and the grains has an effect on the quality of the finished products
• Milling yield: The percentage of finished product achieved after milling a grain crop
is known as the milling yield
 Size reduction process
• In size reduction, material is fractured
• The material is first distorted and strained by the size reduction machine
• This energy applied by the machine is temporarily stored as a strain energy in the material
• Once the strain energy exceeds the certain level upon the force exerted b the machine, the material
fractures
• When the material fractures a new surface area is created
• Each new unit area of the surface requires certain amount of energy
• However, only smaller amount of energy applied by the machine is used for the fracture of the
material and the larger portion of applied energy is converted into heat
• The efficiency of the size reduction process depends on the magnitude of mechanical force applied,
its duration, type, size of the fractured particles, new surface area formed and the amount of energy
or power used in the process
 Calculation of Specific Surface Area

• Based on two parameters (i) particle size distribution (PSD) (ii) shape
factor
• Sieve analysis is used for PSD and calculation of typical dimension or
average diameter, Dp, of a particle
• Typical dimension Dp of the particle can arbitrarily be correlated to the volume (Vp) and the surface area (Ap) of
the particle as:

where Vp is the volume of the particle, Ap area of the particle surface, and Dp typical dimension of the particle
and p and q are the volume shape factor and surface shape factor, respectively
Calculation of Specific Surface Area

• Shape factor: 𝜆 = (𝑞Τ𝑝)

Shape of the Volume Surface area P value Q value

particle
Cube shaped 𝐷𝑝3 6𝐷𝑝2 1 1
spherical particle (𝜋Τ6) 𝐷𝑝3 𝜋𝐷𝑝2 (𝜋Τ6) (𝜋Τ6)

• The ratio of surface area to volume can be obtained by dividing Eq. (2) by Eq. (1):

Area of the particle surface

Calculation of Specific Surface Area
 Degree of grinding
• This is defined as the ratio of the overall surface area of the final
product to the overall surface area of the feed
𝑆𝑝
𝑑𝑔 = −−− − (8)
𝑆𝑓
• where dg is the degree of grinding, Sp overall surface area of the final
product, and Sf overall surface area of the feed
Fineness Modulus

• Fineness modulus (FM) is equal to the sum of cumulative percentage

mass retained over different sieves divided by 100

σ 𝐶𝑢𝑚𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑐𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑤𝑒𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑟𝑒𝑡𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑑 (%)

𝐹𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑚𝑜𝑑𝑢𝑙𝑢𝑠 𝐹𝑀 = −− −(9)
100
• It can be used to find the average particle size using the empirical
equation:
𝐹𝑀
𝐷𝑝 = 0.135 1.366 −−− −(10)
 Power required in size reduction
• Consider the energy E required to produce a change dD in the
particle size of D is a power function of D
• That is,
𝑑𝐸
− = 𝑘 × 𝐷𝑛 −−− −(9)
𝑑𝐷
Where D is the diameter of the particle in mm, n and k are the constants
depending on the type and size of material and type of machine
• Various theories re proposed for prediction the power required
Rittinger’s Law
• Rittinger considered the material to be brittle
• Rittinger’s Law states that work in crushing is proportional to the new surface area
created, therefore n= -2 in equation (9) (area is proportional to length squared)
• By integrating Eqn.9

where Df is the particle size of the feed (m), Dp particle size of the product (m), E total energy (kJ), P power required (kW), m is
mass flow rate (kg/s), and KR Rittinger’s constant
 Kick’s Law
• Kick (1885) assumed that the energy required for size reduction is directly proportional to the
change in dimension and n is assumed as 1
• By integrating Eqn.9

Here, KK Kick’s constant

 Bond’s Law
• Bond assumed the final particles size as size of mesh in which 80% of materials is
passed.
• He assumed n =3/2, which is in between 2 and 1; By integrating Eqn.9
Bond’s Law
• Another empirical form of Bond’s equation is written in terms of constant work index (Wi).
• Work index has been defined as the energy required to reduce the unit mass of material from
infinite size to a size where 80% of materials is below 100 μm.

Where, Wi is work index (kWh/tonne)

• If we take the size of the feed and the final product in mm, then

Both the above equations are empirical in nature, and the constants 10 and 0.3162 used in them,
respectively, are on the basis of experimental results obtained in different units
Applications of size reduction laws
Size reduction machines

• Can be classified according to the way the forces are applied

• Between two surfaces
• At one solid surface
• By action of surrounding medium

• Based on practical applications.

• Crushers
• Grinders
• Fine grinders
• Cutters
 Crushers – Jaw crusher

• Limited application in food industries

Crusher – Gyratory crusher
• Works like Pestle and mortar
• Mostly used in mining industry
Crushers – Roller crusher

• Used for most of the flour industries,

sugarcane crushers etc.
 Hammer mill
• Based on impact and attrition
• Used to pulverize grains, spice, sugar, nuts etc.
Burr mill or plate mill

• Coffee bean grinding

Attrition Mill or Disk Mill

• Used for brittle and fibrous material

• Faster than burr mill
 Ball mill
• Ball mill consists of a cylinder, which is filled with 30–
35% of its volume by small steel balls and is rotated
through motor.
• Used for making powders or fine materials like cocoa
powder
• Used as a secondary grinder
• Size of the powder depends on the diameter of the balls
• The point where the centrifugal force becomes greater
than the gravitational force is called the “critical speed”
 Cutter Mill
• generally used for soft to medium-hard,
brittle, fibrous, tough, plastic, or
temperature-sensitive materials
• The comminution in cutter mill takes place
mainly due to cutting and shearing.
Rietz mill or Angled hammer mill

• For materials with high oil and

moisture content
• Fixed hammers inside a rotor
Colloidal Mill
• it is used to process
purees, food paste, pulps
Cryogenic grinding
 Problems
• Problem 1: A crusher is fed with limestone having particles of 2 cm median equivalent diameter and
discharges a product consisting of particles of 0.5 cm median equivalent diameter. The equipment operates at
a capacity of 1.2  104 kg/h consuming a power of 10 hp. If the requirements of the process demand a finer size
of the product (0.4 cm of median equivalent diameter) decreasing the capacity to 1.0  104 kg/h , determine the
theoretical power consumption under the new conditions.
• Solution: The feed particles are considered very coarse, so Kicks law will be used
Given :
Initial size of the particle = 0.02 m
Final particle size w: 0.005 m
Power required = ( 10 hp  0.7457) = 7.46 kW
𝑃 7.46 𝑘𝑊
Energy required = 𝑚ሶ = = 6.22 × 10−4 𝑘𝑊ℎ/𝑘𝑔
1.2×104 𝑘𝑔/ℎ

From Kicks law, Kk is calculated as 4.48 × 10−4 𝑘𝑊ℎ/𝑘𝑔

Therefore, for the new conditions the power is calculated as 7.21 kW
Problems
• Problem 2: Wheat (4.33 mm size) was milled by a burr mill at two different gaps between the burr stones. 250 g of
the flour was analyzed by BIS sieves for particle size determination as given below. The power required to mill
wheat, at first setting was 8.0 kW. Calculate the power requirement of the mill in second setting using (1) Rittinger’s
law and (2) Kick’s law. The capacity of the mill is 0.2 t/hr.

Siev Mass fraction of flour

e no retained over sieve , g
I setting II setting
100 - -
70 10.1 1.5
50 16.7 13.3
40 36.0 36.1
30 82.2 74.8
20 96.0 104.6
15 8.0 8.4
Pan 0.0 11.3
Problems
• Solution:
• Step 1: Calculate the Average Diameter of the particles for setting 1 and
setting 2
Sieve no Weight Cumulative weight Cumulative weight Fineness Average
retained (g) retained (g) percentage retained (%) modulus diameter
(mm)

• Calculate the Rittinger’s and Kick’s law constants for setting 1

• Then calculate the power required for Setting 2