Govardhana

Dept of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering

National Institute of Technology Warangal

Sub-sieve techniques
Sieving is rarely carried out on a routine basis for

particle size below 40 m

Below this size the operation is referred to as subsieving
The most widely used methods are
Sedimentation
Elutriation
Microscopy and
Laser diffraction

Sedimentation
The removal of suspended solid particles from a liquid

mainly by making use of gravitational settling is called

sedimentation
Sedimentation is at its best when there exists a large
difference in density between solid and liquid

Sedimentation methods

Sedimentation methods are based on the

measurement of the rate of settling of the powder
particles uniformly dispersed in a fluid
The material under test is uniformly dispersed in low
concentration in water contained in a beaker
A wetting agent may need to be added to ensure
complete dispersion of the particles
A syphon tube is immersed into the water to a
depth of h below the water level, corresponding to
about 90% of the liquid depth L

Sedimentation

Beaker decantation

Contd...
The time required for a 10 m particle to settle

from the water level to the bottom of the syphon

tube, distance h, is calculated (t = h/u)
The pulp is basically stirred to have homogeneous
dispersion of ore particles
Then it is allowed for settling ore particles and time
taken for settling was calculated
The water above the end of the tube is syphoned
off and all particles in this water are assumed to be
smaller than 10 m diameter

Contd...
However, a fraction of the -10 m material, which

commenced settling
From various levels below the water level, will also be present
in the material below the syphon level
In order to recover these particles, the pulp remaining must be
diluted with water to the original level
The procedure repeated until the decant liquor is essentially
clear
The settled material can be treated in a similar manner at larger
separating sizes, i.e. at shorter decanting times, until a
sufficient number of fractions is obtained

Contd...
Advantages
The method is simple and cheap
This methods has the advantage over many other sub-

sieve techniques in that it produces a true fractional size

analysis
Disadvantages
This method is, however, extremely tedious, as long
settling times are required for very fine particles, and
separate tests must be performed for each particle size
Large quantity of water is needed

 Theoretically an infinite number of decantations are

required to produce a 100% efficient separation into

oversize and undersize fractions
The number of practical decantations must be chosen
according to the accuracy required and the width of the
size range required in each of the fractions
The efficiency of removal of particles of size dl into the
decant is

Elutriation techniques
Elutriation is a process of sizing particles by means of an

upward current of fluid, usually water or air

The process is the reverse of gravity sedimentation, and
Stokes' law applies
All elutriators consist of one or more "sorting columns" in
which the fluid is rising at a constant velocity
Feed particles introduced into the sorting column will be
separated into two fractions, according to their terminal
velocities, calculated from Stokes' law

Elutriation

Simple elutriator

 Those particles having a terminal velocity less than that of

the velocity of the fluid will report to the overflow

While those particles having a greater terminal velocity
than the fluid velocity will sink to the underflow
Elutriation is carried out until there are no visible signs of
further classification taking place or the rate of change in
weights of the products is negligible

Contd...
Advantages
The number of volume changes required is far less in

elutriation compare to decantation

It is also possible to achieve complete separation by
elutriation, whereas this can only be achieved in beaker
decantation by an infinite number of volume changes
Disadvantages
This involves the use of much water
The fluid velocity is not constant across the sorting column,
minimum at the walls of the column, and maximum at the
centre. So that some coarse particles are misplaced in the
overflow, and some fines are misplaced into the coarse
overflow

Particle Size Distribution: Graphical

Representation
A histogram is one of the simplest ways to display a particle

size distribution
It is a particle frequency distribution that shows the percentage
of particles found in
each size range
The mode represents the value that
occurs most frequently in a
distribution
In particle size distributions, the
mode is the particle diameter that
occurs most frequently