Breakage Functions of Particles of Four Different Materials Subjected to Uniaxial Compression

Particle breakage is a common problem in the conveying and handling of particulate solids. The phenomenon of particle breakage has been studied by experiments by a number of researchers in order to describe the process of breakage by mathematical functions. The development of comminution functions that can suitably describe the breakage behavior of granular materials can lead to a significant improvement in the design and efficiency of particulate solids handling equipment. The present study focuses on developing the strength distribution and the breakage functions of particles of four different materials subjected to uniaxial compressive loading. Single particles were compressed until fracture in order to determine their strength distribution and the fragments were investigated to determine their size distribution. The parameters of logistic function and breakage function were obtained by curve-fitting of the functions to the strength distribution and size distribution of the fragments respectively. These functions were then implemented in the BGU-DEM code which was used to carry out Discrete Element Method (DEM) simulations on single particle breakage by compression. The simulations produced a similar mass distribution of fragments to the breakage function obtained from the experimental data.