COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

Department of Mechanical and Industrial

Engineering

MECHANICAL SEPARATIONS
EME 20320

Lecture 1.1

Ms. Joefel Jessica (Course Coordinator)

1
 Mechanical
Separations

⮚are performed based on the physical difference between particles .

Shape Size
Density
Physical
Difference
⮚are applicable to heterogeneous mixtures, not to homogeneous solutions.

BY: JOEFEL JESSICA C. DUMARAN

 These Mechanical-physical separation processes
are considered under the following classification:

• 1. Screening
Screening is the separation of a mixture of solid particles of various sizes
into two or more fractions by means of a screening surface.

BY: JOEFEL JESSICA C. DUMARAN

2. Settling and Sedimentation
In settling and sedimentation, the particles are separated from the fluid by gravitational
forces acting on particles of various sizes and densities.

BY: JOEFEL JESSICA C. DUMARAN

 3. Centrifugal separation - In centrifugal separations, the
particles are separated from the fluid by centrifugal forces
acting on particles of various sizes and densities.

Centrifugal Depends distance

mass of speed of
from the
force on the object rotation
center

centrifugal force - An object traveling in a circle behaves as if it is experiencing

an outward force.
BY: JOEFEL JESSICA C. DUMARAN
• 4. Filtration
In filtration a pressure difference is set up that causes the fluid to flow
through the small holes in a screen or cloth which block the passage of
the large solid particles: these, in turn, build up on the cloth as a porous
cake.

BY: JOEFEL JESSICA C. DUMARAN

 residue is the substance that remains on the filter
filtrate is the substance that flows through the
filter

Filter press (sometimes called Plate-and-Frame Filter press)

- works in a "batch" manner.
- loaded with slurry before completing a filtering cycle and producing a batch of
solid filtered material, called the filter "cake". The solid is removed, the press re-
loaded with slurry and the filtering cycle repeated.
Slurry a thick suspension of solid in a liquid
BY: JOEFEL JESSICA C. DUMARAN
5. Mechanical size reduction and separation
In mechanical size reduction, the solid particles are broken
mechanically into smaller particles and separated according to sizes.

BY: JOEFEL JESSICA C. DUMARAN

 CHAPTER 1
Properties of Particulate solids

Solids are more difficult to handle than liquids or gases.

Forms of angular Continuous Fine

solids pieces sheets powders

- hard and abrasive

- tough and rubbery
Types of - soft or fragile
solids
- dusty
- free-flowing
- sticky

BY: JOEFEL JESSICA C. DUMARAN

 Characterization of solid particles:
According to: size, shape, and density

A. According to shape

BY: JOEFEL JESSICA C. DUMARAN

 s

B. According to density
Homogeneous solid particles have the same density as that of the bulk
material. Particles obtained after breaking a composite solid, have different
densities.
BY: JOEFEL JESSICA C. DUMARAN
 C. According to Size

The size of a spherical particle is nothing but its diameter or radius and that of a cube particle, the length of its
side.

For sphere: For cube:

volume = s3

For irregular particles, a common term used is the “equivalent diameter”.

Equivalent diameter
- which is defined as the size of a spherical particle having the same surface area as the particle. The equivalent
diameter is the second largest dimensions.

BY: JOEFEL JESSICA C. DUMARAN

 The “types” of equivalent diameter are:

1. Stokes diameter, which is determined by sedimentation and elutriation

( Elutriation, also known as air classification, is a process for separating

lighter particles from heavier ones using a vertically-directed stream of gas
or liquid (usually upwards)).

2.Projected area diameter, which is determined microscopically

3. Sieve aperture diameter, which is determined by sieving

BY: JOEFEL JESSICA C. DUMARAN

 Particle sizes are expressed in different units:

Coarse particles fine particles

are measured in
inches or
in terms of
millimeters; screen size

very fine Ultrafine particles

sometimes described in
particles in terms of their surface
area per unit mass,
• micrometers or usually in square meters
nanometers. per gram (m2/g).

BY: JOEFEL JESSICA C. DUMARAN

 Particle shape

The shape of an individual particle is expressed in terms of the sphericity, Фs,

which is independent of particle size. The sphericity of a particle is the ratio
of the surface-volume ratio for a sphere of diameter Dp with equal volume
as the particle and the surface-volume ratio for a particle whose nominal
size is Dp . For a spherical particle of diameter Dp, Фs=1; for a non-
spherical particle, the sphericity is defined as
where:
Dp: equivalent diameter of particle
Sp: surface area of one particle
vp: volume of one particle
For many crushed materials, Фs is between 0.6 and 0.8. For particles ground
by abrasion, Фs may be as high as 0.95.

BY: JOEFEL JESSICA C. DUMARAN

 Mixed particle sizes and size analysis
• In a sample of uniform particles of diameter Dp, the total volume of the
particles is m/ρp, where m = mass of the sample, ρp = density. Since the
volume of one particle is , vp the total number of particle in the sample is

• The total surface area of the particles is

• To apply the above two equations to mixtures of particles having

various size and densities, the mixture is sorted into fractions, each of
constant density and approximately constant size.
BY: JOEFEL JESSICA C. DUMARAN
 Specific surface of mixture
• If the particle density ρp and sphericity Фs are known, the surface area of
particles in each fraction can be calculated and added to give the specific
surface, Aw.

• Where xi = mass fraction in a given increment, = average diameter,

taken as arithmetic average of the smallest and largest particle diameters
in increment.

BY: JOEFEL JESSICA C. DUMARAN

 Average particle size
(1). Volume-surface mean diameter, , defined by

• If the number of particles in each fraction Ni is known, then

BY: JOEFEL JESSICA C. DUMARAN

(2). Arithmetic mean diameter

NT = number of particles in the entire sample

(3). Mass mean diameter

BY: JOEFEL JESSICA C. DUMARAN

BY: JOEFEL JESSICA C.
DUMARAN

(4). Volume mean diameter

(5). Number of particles in mixture

The volume of any particle is proportional to its "diameter" cubed

a = volume shape factor

Assuming that a is independent of size
Example problem:
1. The screen analysis shown in Table 1, applies to a crushed quartz. The density
of the particles is 2,650 kg/m3 (0.00265 g/mm3), and the shape factors are a = 0.8
and Фs= 0.571. For the material between 4-mesh and 200-mesh in particle size,
Calculate:
A)Aw in square millimeters per gram
B) Nw in particles per gram
C) Dv
D) Ds
E) Dw
F) Ni for the 150/200-mesh increment
G) What fraction of the total number of particles in the 150/200-mesh increment?
BY: JOEFEL JESSICA C. DUMARAN 21
 Table 1: Screen Analysis Crushed quartz
Mesh Screen opening,Dp,mm Mass fraction retained, Average particle Cumulative fraction
xi diameter in increment, smaller than Dpi
Dpi,mm

4 4.699 0.0000 - 1.0000

6 3.327 0.0251 4.013 0.9749
8 2.362 0.1250 2.845 0.8499
10 1.651 0.3207 2.007 0.5292
14 1.168 0.2570 1.409 0.2722
20 0.833 0.1590 1.001 0.1132
28 0.589 0.0538 0.711 0.0594
35 0.417 0.0210 0.503 0.0384
48 0.295 0.0102 0.356 0.0282
65 0.208 0.0077 0.252 0.0205
100 0.147 0.0058 0.178 0.0147
150 0.104 0.0041 0.126 0.0106
200 0.074 0.0031 0.089 0.0075
Pan - 0.0075 0.037 0.0000
BY: JOEFEL JESSICA C. DUMARAN 22
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