SOLIDS NOTES 4, George G.

Chase, The University of Akron

4. BULK PROPERTIES OF POWDERS AND SLURRIES

In the process industries economics usually requires us to handle and process many
particles at a time rather than individually. Because of this we must have a working
knowledge of the collective or bulk properties of these materials.
The collective properties are the measurable properties of groups of particles. Some of
these properties are analogous to properties that are measured on individual particles
while other properties may not be defined for individual properties.
Some important examples are discussed here, but the list is not complete.

4.1 Brief Overview of Some Bulk Properties

4.1.1 ANGLE OF REPOSE

The angle of repose is a characteristic of solids which characterizes the piling or stacking
nature of the particles. The way that particles stack when poured into a pile is a function
of the size/shape, particle intrinsic density, surface forces (stickiness, electrostatic), and
roughness of the particles. Many factors can influence the way particles stack hence it is
difficult to predict; normally a simple measurement can be made to determine the angle
of repose.

a. b. c.

Figure 4-1. Angle of repose, , of (a) a pile of powder, (b) powder in a container, and
(c) powder in a rolling drum.

The angle of repose is considered to be mostly a measure of the internal friction between
the particles as a whole, but not between individual particles. It is used in a number of
correlations and estimates for the behavior properties of the bulk solids. One example
given in Coulson and Richardsons text relates the angle of repose to the height of the
longest movable plug in a piston. The angle of repose may is often incorrectly be used
to estimate the angle required for the bottom of a hopper to ensure proper discharge.
There are more appropriate methods for designing hoppers which will be discussed in
detail later.

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SOLIDS NOTES 4, George G. Chase, The University of Akron

The best use of the angle of repose is to determine the size of a pile of powder or granular
materials, either volume or ground area that such a pile will occupy. Figures 4-2 and 4-3
show typical piles of such materials.

Figure 4-2. Large gravel piles at rock and stone facility near Marblehead, Ohio.

Figure 4-3. Baldy Mountain, Philmont Boy Scout Ranch, New Mexico. The top of the
mountain is largely loose rock and stone that prevent plants from taking root.

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SOLIDS NOTES 4, George G. Chase, The University of Akron

4.1.2 POROSITY (VOLUME FRACTION)

Porosity is the fraction of volume space that is NOT occupied by the solid particles.
If you have a two phase system of solids and liquid, you can add the respective volumes
to obtain the total volume of your mixed system.

VSOLIDS VLIQUUID VMIXTUR

+ =

Figure 4-4. Addition of phase volumes yields the total volume.

The porosity is defined as the volume fraction of the fluid phase:

V LIQUID
= (4-1)
V MIXTURE
Since porosity is defined as a fraction it must have a value between 0 and 1 inclusive.
is the fluid phase volume fraction. (1-) is the solid phase volume fraction. Their sum is
1.
Handout 12 (Appendix B of Foust et.al., Principles of Unit Operations, Wiley, NY,
1960) provides correlations for estimating porosity of packed beds as a function of
sphericity.

4.1.3 BULK DENSITY

Bulk density is the effective density of a powder or particulate solid taking into account
the volume occupied by both the solid and fluid phases. The bulk density is calculated
from the porosity and the intrinsic densities of the fluid and solid phases:
o = + (1 ) p . (4-2)

EXAMPLE 4-1. An example of applying bulk density is determining the weight of sand
in a bucket. The intrinsic density of one sand particle is about the same as that of glass,
2.6 g/cm3. If sand packs with a porosity of 0.4, how much will a twenty five liter bucket
filled level to the top with dry sand weigh?
The mass of sand in the bucket is given by
Mass = oV BUCKET
Applying Eq.(4-2), neglecting mass of the air (air density is about 1/2600 that of
the sand), we get
o = (1 0.4)2600kg / m 3 = 1560kg / m 3

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SOLIDS NOTES 4, George G. Chase, The University of Akron

Mass = (1560kg / m 3 )(25l )(m 3 / 1000l ) = 39.0kg

Weight = Force = ma / g c
= (39.0kg )(9.807m / s 2 ) /(1kg m / N s 2 )
= 382.5 N (or 86 lbf )

4.2 Momentum Transport Properties

There are several properties of dispersed multiphase mixtures that are important to
predicting handling and transporting properties. These include bulk viscosity, coefficient
of friction, Janssens Coefficient, and permeability.

4.2.1 BULK (SLURRY) VISCOSITY

Slurries, which are mixtures of fluids and solids, display a number of interesting
properties including Bingham Plastic, Power Law, Dilatent, and time dependent
behaviors.
Bingham Plastic (Yield Stress) flow occurs when particles in the slurry resist
motion between each other and with the pipe or container wall. The shear stress
must exceed a certain value (the yield value) before the fluid will flow. (see Patel,
R.D., "Non-Newtonian Flow," in Handbook of Fluids in Motion, N.P. Cheremisinoff and R.
Gupta eds., Chapter 6; Ann Arbor Science, 135-178, 1983).
Shear thickening and/or shear thinning behavior can occur in slurries made up of
fibrous or granular materials, respectively. Thickening occurs when the particles
become interlocked. Thinning occurs when the particle separate to allow
movement of the slurry.
The particular property I want to discuss is viscosity. Assuming that other effects
are negligible, can we predict how the slurrys effective bulk viscosity changes
with solids concentration (or equivalently, porosity)?
Einstein (Ann. Phys., 19, 289, 1906; 34, 591, 1911) derived the theory for dilute
suspensions of rigid spheres. He shows that the slurry bulk viscosity is related to
the liquid viscosity by
0 = (1 + 2.5(1 )) (4-3)
in the low concentration limit as 1 .
Thomas (Ind. Eng. Chem., 45, 87A, 1953) extended Einsteins relation
empirically to higher concentrations of solids (on the order of 0. 95
(
0 = 1 + 2.5(1 ) + 10.05(1 )2 + 0.00273e16.6 (1 ) ) (4-4)
which offers a reasonable fit.
For highly concentrated slurries, near a critical void fraction at which the particles
are in contact forming a structural bed, c , the bulk viscosity may be

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SOLIDS NOTES 4, George G. Chase, The University of Akron

approximated by (Art Etchels, personal communication, DuPont, Delaware,

1994)

(1 )
2.5

= 1
0
(4-5)
(1 c )
which says that the closer the porosity gets to the critical porosity c the
more the slurry behaves like a solid structure. Another correlation is Shook Eq.
listed in homework problem E3.
To estimate the values of c one can use the porosity of a loosely packed bed. Foust,
Appendix B, gives a correlation between sphericity and porosity and Loose, Normal, and
Dense packing (A.S. Foust, L.A. Wenzel, C.W. Clump, L. Maus, and L.B. Andersen,
Principles of Unit Operations, Wiley, New York, 1960). The data taken from Fousts
figure is plotted in Figure 4-5 in a slightly different format. (Handout 4.1)

1
0.9
0.8
0.7
Porosity

0.6
0.5 Loose
0.4 Normal
0.3 Dense
0.2
0.1
0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
Sphericity

Figure 4-5. Porosity as a function of sphericity and packing structure. Loose

packed materials are ones that have not had much time to settle due to vibrations.
A normal packed material is one that may have sat for several days or weeks.
Dense packed materials are ones that have sat for a year or more and have had
ample time to settle and vibrate into its most densely packed structure under
force of gravity.

The plot in Figure 4-5 is obtained by curve fitting data. The loose packed porosity is a
function of sphericity given by
Loose = 0.4411 2 1.1042 + 1.0873 (4-6)
All three curves are generated by defining a packing parameter, , such that

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SOLIDS NOTES 4, George G. Chase, The University of Akron

0 for Loose Packing

= 0.5 for Normal Packing (4-7)
1 for Dense Packing

and the porosity is given by
= (1 0.297 ( 0.08)) Loose (4-8)
for any packing condition.

Etchels equation, Eq.(4-5) is a special case of the Krieger-Dougherty Equation (I.M.

Krieger and T.J. Dougherty, Trans.Soc. Rheol., 3, 137-152, 1959) which has the form
A (1 c )

= 1
0 (1 ) (4-9)

(1 c )
where A is a material parameter. Bird et.al. (R.B. Bird, W.E. Stewart, and E.N.
Lightfoot, Transport Phenomena, 2nd ed., Wiley, New York, 2002) list values for
parameter A from several references.
A plot of the data in Figure 4-6 gives a rough approximation between A and c as
A 10.1 c (4-10)
The data points in the plot are scattered meaning that Eq.(4-6) should only be used if
experimental data are not available. (Handout 4.2)

12 Material A c
y = 10.107x Submicron spheres 2.7 0.29
10
2 40 micron spheres 3.28 0.39
R = 0.4134
Ground Gypsum 3.25 0.31
8 TiO2 5.0 0.45
Laterite 9.0 0.65
Glass Rods 30x700m 9.25 0.732
6
A

Glass Rods 100x400m 9.87 .618

Quartz grains 53-76 m 5.8 .629
4
Glass fiber aspect ratio 7 3.8 0.626
Glass fiber aspect ratio 14 5.03 0.74
2 Glass fiber aspect ratio 21 6.0 0.767

0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9
c

Figure 4-6 Relation between parameter A and c in Eq. (4-10).

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SOLIDS NOTES 4, George G. Chase, The University of Akron

4.2.2 WALL COEFFICIENT OF FRICTION

In fluid flow we frequently use the no-slip condition at a wall surface to model the
boundary condition. This implies that the fluid velocity at the surface of contact with the
wall has the same velocity as the wall. Powders often display fluid-like properties and
the no-slip boundary condition is sometimes observed. Other boundary conditions
include total slip condition and an intermediate condition. For a stationary wall these
boundary conditions may be summarized as listed in Table 4-1,

Table 4-1. Comparison of boundary conditions for no-slip, perfect-slip and intermediate
slip at a wall surface.
1. No slip condition: the solid particles Solid particles may stick to walls due to
have the same velocity as the wall (zero in adhesive or electrostatic forces, or the wall
this case). surface may be very rough and hence is a
shearing action the particles next to the
v =0
s
(4-11)
wall surface get caught in ruts on the
surface.
2. Perfect slip condition: the motion of the The particles do not stick to the wall; the
solid particles parallel to the wall surface wall is slippery (like Teflon coating). The
are not affected by the surface, hence the wall may redirect the flow but it does not
gradient in the velocity normal to the slow down or dissipate the kinetic energy
surface is zero. of the fluid-like solid particles
n surface = 0 (4-12)
vx
xy surface = =0 (4-13)
y
3. Intermediate slip condition: the The solids movement is not zero at the
velocity at the wall is proportional to the wall; some slippage occurs but the solids
shear stress. movement is slowed as energy is
dissipated.
v z surface = rz surface (4-14)

is the proportionality constant and is a

function of the normal stress acting on the
wall surface (Bird, et.al., 1960, pg 67).

The intermediate slip condition is one of empirical convenience. The frictional forces
acting between the particulate solids and the wall surface are complicated functions of
the particle geometry, packing arrangement, and stresses. We would like to determine a
functional relationship between and the coefficient of friction given in physics.
In soil mechanics triaxial shear testers can be used to measure the wall stress-strain and
slip behavior of particulate solids. is determined empirically. From elementary physics

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SOLIDS NOTES 4, George G. Chase, The University of Akron

we know that frictional forces oppose movement (Haliday & Resnick, Fundamentals of
Physics, Wiley, NY, 1974, pg 78).
Two surfaces that are in contact may appear to be smooth, but at a sufficient small scale
the surfaces are rough and jagged. The interlocking of the jagged edges between the
surfaces causes the friction. Also, there may be attractive forces (static charge, etc.) that
resist motion.
An initial force is required to overcome the resistances due to the interlocked jagged
edges and to cause separation between the surfaces so that they may move relative to
each other. Once in motion the force required to keep them in motion is less than the
initial force. The final force to keep the surfaces in relative motion increases with
increasing velocity.
If you recall the drag coefficient Stokes Law for a sphere, Eqs. 3-58, 3-59, and 3-42, we
deduce that in Stokes law range the drag force is proportional to the velocity. Hence by
analogy we should not be surprised to find the coefficient of friction to be a function of
velocity (though for powdered materials it may be a weak function of velocity).

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SOLIDS NOTES 4, George G. Chase, The University of Akron

g
BLOCK

Consider a block of mass M resting on a

horizontal surface (Figure 4-7a). When we SURFACE
apply a force parallel to the surface the
block does not move until the applied force
N= -Mg
exceeds the maximum static frictional force
(Figure (4-7b,c). (a) Block of mass M on surface.

Once the motion starts the force F required

to maintain motion usually decreases, g
which means that the kinetic frictional F fs
force is less than the maximum static
frictional force,
f s(max) > f k . (4-15)

If force F is held constant, the block will N= -Mg

accelerate due to the imbalance between (b) Force F is balance by the static friction fs.
the forces until the kinetic frictional force
increases to balance F (Figure 4-7d).
g
The static and kinetic forces are functions F f s(max)
of the normal force, N, holding the block
against the surface.
Normally we model the relationship
between the forces as N= -Mg

f s s N (4-16) (c) No motion occurs until F exceeds fs(max).

f k = k N (4-17)
Motion, dv/dt > 0
where s and k are the coefficients of g

static and kinetic friction. Also, the kinetic F fk

friction varies with velocity (otherwise the
kinetic friction could never balance the
applied force as shown in Figure 4-7d).
We assume a linear dependence by letting N= -Mg
k = k ' v to obtain
(d) As long as force F exceeds the kinetic friction, fk, the
f k = k ' vN . (4-18) block accelerates. Acceleration stops when F is again
balanced by the frictional force, fk, and the motion
At steady state we get becomes steady.

F = k ' vN . (4-19) Figure 4-7. Effect of forces acting on a block of

mass M resting on a horizontal surface.

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SOLIDS NOTES 4, George G. Chase, The University of Akron

Recalling that F = shear stress area = xys + zys and N = normal stress = yys where
the area is the surface at y = constant, hence we get a relationship between the shear and
normal stresses:

( ) ( )
1/ 2
s
xy + zys = k ' v x2 + v z2 yys . (4.20)
surface surface

If the motion on the y=constant surface is only in the x direction this equation simplifies
to

xys = vx surface
(4-21)
surface

where = k ' yys .

surface

Now we can empirically relate the motions of the particles near a surface to their
effective stresses.
Internally, there are frictional forces occurring between the particles. At the bulk scale
these frictions could be defined the same way except instead of a wall or boundary
surface the friction is due to relative motion with other particles. In these cases the flows
may be modeled similar to yield stress fluids (Bingham Plastic, Bird et. al. 1960, chapter
1).
An example of this is shown in Figure 4-8 in the case of funnel flow in a hopper and the
formation of rat holes. In the center of the hopper exit the powdered solids are able to
freely flow downward while the material near the hopper walls is stationary because the
shear stress due to gravitational force is too small to overcome the static frictional force
between the solid particles.

SHEAR STRESS IS TOO

SMALL TO OVERCOME
STATIC FRICTION AT TH
SURFACE

STATIONARY
POWDER STATIONARY
POWDER

FLOW

Figure 4-8. Solid particles near the hopper wall remain

stationary while the material in the center flows downward.

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SOLIDS NOTES 4, George G. Chase, The University of Akron

4.2.3 JANSSENS COEFFICIENT (AXIAL TO TANGENTIAL STRESS RATIO)

Janssens coefficient (also called the coefficient of lateral pressure; Jaroslav, F.
Mechanics of Particulate Materials, Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1982, Figure 1.3, page 23)
provides a largely empirical relationship between the axial and normal solid phase
stresses relative to the direction of flow. For motion in a tube the axial stress is the zz
component in the z axis direction and the normal stress is the rr component in the r
direction.
Janssens coefficient is defined as
rr
K= (4-22)
zz
where rr and zz are the stress components in the r and z directions. These stresses are
the total stresses acting on the multiphase material. These stresses are the sum of the
fluid phase and solid phase stresses. Hence, this definition applies whether the material
is totally liquid, totally solid, or a mixture in-between.
This coefficient represents the ratio of the measurable stresses, as can be measured with a
strain gauge to measure the force acting on a defined probe surface. For a pure liquid we
know that the probe would measure an equal pressure in all directions within the liquid at
a given point within the liquid at stagnant conditions. Hence for a pure liquid K=1. For a
totally solid material K=0 because we know we can set a weight on top of a solid block
and all of the stresses within the block are aligned vertically.
Figure 4-9 gives a rough correlation showing the Janssens coefficient approximate
values for several fluid-solid mixture materials. This correlation is crude, it only gives a
rough approximation. For most granular materials we can take Janssens coefficient to
be approximately 0.4. (Handout 4.3)

1 LIQUIDS
LOW CONCENTRATION
SLURRIES
HIGH CONCENTRATION
SLURRIES
K FILTER CAKES
PACKED BEDS
GRANULAR
MATERIALS

POLYMERS

0 SOLIDS
0 1
VOLUME FRACTION LIQUID

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SOLIDS NOTES 4, George G. Chase, The University of Akron

Figure 4-9. Janssens Coefficient for various materials.

For powdered materials, in air, Janssens Coefficient is easily interpreted as the ratio of
the stresses only on the solid phase. When the fluid is liquid and the liquid is under high
pressure the interpretation of the data is more difficult because the fluid pressure can also
influence the probe measurement.

4.2.4 PERMEABILITY
Darcys law relates the pressure drop to flow through a packed bed with the permeability
coefficient, k .
Given the packed bed shown in Figure 4-10, the permeability is defined by
k Po PL Q
= . (4-23)
L A

FLOW IN
PACKED
BED

P
L

AREA, A

FLOW OUT
Figure 4-10. Typical Packed Bed.

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SOLIDS NOTES 4, George G. Chase, The University of Akron

Typical permeability values for some common materials are listed in Table 4-2. Also,
Coulson & Richardson (Chemical Engineeering, Volume 2, 4th ed, Pergamon, Oxford,
1991, Table 4.1, page 133) has permeability values for common shapes given as B where
k=B/. The data reported by Coulson & Richardson show that the permeability depends
significantly upon porosity and specific surface area of contact between the fluid and
solid phases. (Handout 4.4)

Table 4-2. Permeabilities of typical materials.

Material Permeability
Coefficient, k
(m2)
Clean sand, sand-gravel mixture 10-12 to 10-9
Non-woven glass fiber filter media 10-10 to 10-9
fine sand, silt, loam 10-16 to 10-12
peat 10-13 to 10-11
filter aides (diatomaceous earth, etc.) 10-14 to 10-12
clay 10-16 to 10-13
sandstone 10-16 to 10-11
granite 10-20 to 10-18

The Darcys law expression provides a means of estimating the flow rate for a given
pressure drop of fluid. The permeability coefficient must be determined from
experiment.
A few correlations are available for predicting the permeability. One of the more
common correlations is Erguns equation (Bird et.al., Transport Phenomena, Wiley, New
York, 1960),
Pg c d p 3 150(1 )
= + 1.75 (4-24)
L Vo (1 ) d V
2
p o
where
P is the pressure drop (pressure at inlet minus pressure at outlet),
L is the height (or depth) of the bed,
Vo is the approach velocity, flow rate divided by the cross sectional area of
Q
the bed A , and

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SOLIDS NOTES 4, George G. Chase, The University of Akron

ft lb m kg m
gc is the gravity conversion factor 32174
. 2 in FPS units or 1 in
lb f s N s2
MKS units.
Erguns equation relates the pressure drop to a quadratic expression in the superficial
velocity (equivalent to Q / A ) as a function of the particle size and the bed porosity. One
could make a comparison between Darcys Law and Erguns equation to get a relation
for the permeability as a first order function of the superficial velocity.
MacDonald et.al. ("Flow Through Porous Media-The Ergun Equation Revisited," Ind.
Chem. Fundam., 18(3) 199-207, 1979) studied data on a wider range of particles and
concluded that the 150 coefficient in Eq. (4-24) should be replaced with 180 and the 1.75
coefficient should be replaced with 1.80 for smooth particles. For rough particles the
1.75 should be replaced with 4.0.
This gives

Pg c d p 3 180(1 )
= + 1.80 (4-25)
L Vo (1 ) d V
2
p o

Lets define the Reynolds number and packed bed friction factor as

Vo d p
Rep = (4-26)
(1 )

Pg c d p 3
f = (4-27)
L Vo2 (1 )

then the Ergun equation can be written as

180
f = + 1.80 (4-28)
Rep

P
Note that we can deduce a model for permeability from Eq.(4-25). Replace in
L
Vo
Eq.(4-25) with from Eq.(4.23), where Vo = Q / A and (Po PL ) = P . We get
k gc

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SOLIDS NOTES 4, George G. Chase, The University of Akron

2 3 d p2

k=
(1 )2
[180 + 1.80R ] ep
(4-29)

This expression is useful for estimating permeability for a powder of a particular size, or
estimating particle size from pressure drop flow rate data.
If the particles are approximately spherical the sphericity is 1.0, and assuming normal
packing the porosity is about 0.38 (from Figure 4-5). For small Renolds number the 180
term dominates the denominator. Eq.(4-29) reduces to

k 8 x10 4 d p2 (4-30)

EXAMPLE 4-2
As an example, very slow flow of water (1 liters/minute per square meter) though
a 10 cm thick packed bed of spherical Lucite particles produces a pressure drop of
10kPa. What is the approximate size of the Lucite particles?

SOLUTION:
Solving Darcys Law, Eq.(4-23)

Q L 1
k=
A P g c

0.001m 3 / min 1x10 3 kg / ms 0.1m Ns 2 1Pa

= 2
1N / m
2
m 60 s / min 10000 Pa 1kgm

= 1.7 x10 13 m 2

Substitute this value for permeability into Eq.(4-30) and solving for dp
gives
d p = 1.46 x10 5 m

or the average particle size is about 15 microns.

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SOLIDS NOTES 4, George G. Chase, The University of Akron

Check the Reynolds number, to make sure the low Reynolds number
assumption holds:

Rep =
(1000kg / m )(0.001m / min )(min/ 60s )(15x10 m)
3 6

(1x10 kg / ms )(1 0.3)

3

4 x10 4
Since Rep is much smaller than 1 then the assumption in deriving Eq.(4-
30) holds.

4-16