Chemical Engineering & Technology, Vol.37, No.5, 813-818, 2014
Evaluation of Impact Velocity and Compression Force of Moist Zeolite 4A Granules at Breakage using an Equivalence Function
Moist, spherical zeolite 4A granules were tested by compression at a constant loading velocity until primary breakage, and were also rectilinearly accelerated and impacted to achieve breakage using a pneumatic canon. The compressive breakage force and the impact breakage velocity distributions were determined. The results obtained by compression and impact tests were evaluated using the model from Rozenblat et al. The results show that the empirical model originally applied for polydisperse particle population is valid for different moisture contents as well. Furthermore, moisture content is found to strongly influence material behavior, where the breakage force and the breakage displacement both decrease with increasing moisture content due to the interactions of zeolite 4A granules with water.