Universidad de La Sabana

Faculty of de engineering
Particle technology and engineering
Chía-Cundinamarca, 27 de enero de 2018

Measurement methods: Laser diffraction

German Esteban Rodríguez Baquero 0000051562
Jhonier Stiven Gomez Guerrero 0000144812

Within the industrial processes has been made
of great need to determine the size of the
particles that are part of a material within the
production streams, since the properties of
these have a direct relationship with the
composition and size of the particles [4]. For this
reason, many methods and instruments have
been developed in order of measure the particle
size and their concentration in different
industrial applications such as cements. Most of
the equipment currently used only apply to
particles larger than 1 m, because sub-micron
particles in most cases meet different physical
laws [1].
Among the measurement methods is laser
diffraction, by which, instead of determining
the particle size distribution from
measurements of individual particles, the size
distribution is determined by measuring all
simultaneously. When a light wave crosses a
particle, the light that arrives directly is
diffracted, the extent of the diffraction depends
on the size, where the larger particle size the
light disperses at smaller angles, and in turn,
when the particles are small, the angle of
dispersion is greater. The light intensity
distribution is measured by a multi-element or
position-sensitive photodetector positioned
perpendicular to the optical axis. A light beam
(such as the low power He/Ne laser, 5 mW) is
focuses towards the detector, generally this
light source was known as a source of fixed
wavelength typically of 0.63 m [3]. When the
particles pass through the laser, the scattered
light is detected by concentric elements of the
detector, a detector that is usually a portion of
photosensitive silicon with several discrete
detectors and some means for passing the
sample of particles through the laser light beam,
and then the intensity of them is measured. The
angular variation in the intensity of the
scattered light is analyzed to determine the
particle size distribution. The laser diffraction
equipment is usually composed as shown in the
following image:
Fig 1. General scheme [4].
This equipment is continuously fed with
particles in the dry state, as this way it is
possible to overcome the attractive forces
between the particles. However, in liquid
applications a suspension system is adapted to
allow a granulometric determination of non-
reactive liquid samples, with the advantage that
when using ultrasonic equipment, the
electrostatic and Van der Walls forces are
eliminated, a typical problem in dry-phase. It is
customary to use 4 focal distances that allow
different ranges of measurements, as shown
below [4]:
Fig 2. Posibilities in the measurement range [4].
The data response can be given graphically,
showing different patterns for each particle
type, these graphs are known as distribution
curves of diffracted light intensity [4].
Fig 3. Distribution curves of diffracted light
intensity [4].
The measured data are analyzed
mathematically by converting them to a particle
size distribution using Fraunhofer, a method
that generates large errors in some
circumstances, such as when refractive indices
of particle material and the suspension medium
approach each other; or the theory of Mie,
which is much more accurate, allowing the
sizing of particles in the range of 0.1 – 2000 µm
[3], provided that the refractive indices of the
particle material and the suspension medium
are known, more generally the scattering of
light, assuming a sphere model of equivalent
volume. Laser diffraction can be used to
measure the size of suspended particles in a
liquid or gas and reports the diameter of the
equivalent volume. The data obtained for
suspensions of asymmetric particles using laser
diffraction have to be more ambiguous than
those obtained by electronic particle count,
where the solid volumes of the particles are
detected [2][3].
The measuring diameter is made with respect to
the volume, in ranges of 0.1-10000 m, with
volume distributions which are fast, online and
are widely used in control processes due to their
high reproducibility [1].
REFERENCES
1. Seville, J. P., & Wu, C. Y.
(2016). Particle Technology and
Engineering: An Engineer's Guide to
Particles and Powders: Fundamentals
and Computational Approaches.
Butterworth-Heinemann.
2. Richardson, J.F. & Harker, J.H. &
Backhurst, J.R.. (2013). Chemical
Engineering: Particle Technology and
Separation Processes, Oxford, United
Kingdom, Elsevier Science &
Technology. ISBN 0-7506-4445-1.
3. Rhodes, M. J., & Rhodes, M.
(2008). Introduction to particle
technology. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN:
978-0-470 -01427-1.
4. Frías, M., De Luxan, M. P., & de Rojas,
M. S. (1988). Difraction spectrometry
by laser beams. Materiales de
Construcción, 38(212), 37-52. Doi:
http://dx.doi.org/10.3989/mc.1988.v38.
i212.823.