Particle Attrition

Why Particle Attrition Testing?

Particle attrition (i.e., breakage, fines generation, or fragmentation) results with friable bulk materials, such as plastic pellets, coffee beans, fertilizer granules and other agglomerated solids, during routine handling. Particle attrition can be caused by variety of mechanisms including compression, impact, and shear.

• Particle hardness
• Particle shape and size
• Energy of particle impact
• Surface impact
• Particle bed impact
• Surface hardness and roughness
• Particle chemistry
• Propensity to melt or smear

• Impact: evaluate particle attrition during filling of silos, hoppers, and chutes
• Hopper flow: evaluate particle attrition due to funnel or mass flow in a hopper
• Compression: evaluate particle attrition due to loads acting on particle or bed

• description of attrition test equipment and test method
• data presented graphically or in tabular format
• qualitative observations of unique test phenomena
• conclusions and recommendations