A New Method for Measurement of Powder Characteristics Based on Reentrainment Phenomena [Translated]^†

Abstract

A new method has been developed to measure and evaluate the operational powder characteristics for fine particle processing based on the reentrainment phenomena. Experiments on particle reentrainment were carried out using an accelerated air flow for 21 different test powders. Both the reentrainment fluxes, which were measured by an electrostatic method, and the average air velocities were automatically sampled by a computer. The sampled data were processed to obtain the reentrainment profiles as a function of the average air velocity. The cumulative reentrainment efficiencies were also obtained and represented as a function of the wall shear stress.
It was found that fine particles having tendencies to form large aggregates were reentrained mainly in the early stage of the measurement when the flow velocity was as low as 5 m·s⁻¹. Also, the mass ratio of the reentrained large aggregates to the total particles was used to obtain information on the particle-particle (cohesion) or particle-wall interactions (adhesion). On the other hand, the cumulative reentrainment efficiency-curves must be applied to determine the operational conditions controlling the amount of adhered particles in various aerosol processes.

^† This report was originally printed in J. Soc. Powder Technology, Japan. 29(12), 897-905 (1992) in Japanese, before being translated into English by KONA Editorial Committee with the permission of the editorial committee of the Soc. Powder Technology, Japan.