Density, True Density & Tapped Density

Different Methods of Density measurements

Density is defined as mass per unit volume.

Analysis of sample mass can be simply and accurately performed using a balance, but
analysis of sample volume, particularly of powders or irregularly shaped materials can be
difficult and can be perceived and measured in more than one way:

• as bulk volume with corresponding bulk density - includes volume of solid

phase, plus volume of inter-particular space and pores within particles
• as apparent/envelope/geometric volume giving apparent/envelope density -
includes volume of solid phase plus pores within the particle
• as true/skeletal volume for true density measurement - includes volume of
solid phase only and any closed pores within that are not open to the outside
surface

Corresponding measuring methods are:

• Bulk Density - volume determined by the use of graduated cylinder, the cylinder
can be tapped giving a measure of the so called Tapped Density
• Apparent/envelope Density - volume of large geometric shapes easy to measure
(ruler, calippers), volume of irregular shapes measured by powder pycnometery
using a free flowing powder, volume of small, irregular shapes measured by
mercury displacement
• True Density - For regular shapes this is easy to measure using an accurate
balance and a ruler, for irregular or fractured shapes we employ the Archimedean
principle of fluid/gas displacement to measure the volume. The gas pycnometry
operating principle is Gas Law: PV = nRT Where P is the gas pressure, V is the
volume containing the gas, n is the number of moles of the gas, R is the universal
gas constant and T is the temperature of the gas. Introducing a sample into an
analysis chamber of a known volume we determine the volume of a gas displaced
by the sample and true volume of the analysed material. Most commonly used gas
is helium but other gasses are also possible.

Applications:

• True Density measurement is one of the simplest and most economical methods
of Quality Control, the measurement takes few minutes and can be highly
automated.
• Pycnometric or True Density analysis combined with Mercury porosimetry can
provide a measure of materials’ porosity.
• Gas Pycnometry can be used to determine percentage of solids in the slurry
• Specialist applications allow the determination of open and closed cell porosity
of rigid and semi rigid foams.