Attribution of solids—I: Cell Development

Abstract Attrition occurs during the transport and processing of particles and leads to loss of useful product, dust formation and hence to the need for pollution abatement. Little progress has been made into understanding the mechanisms of attrition. The purpose here is to study one of the basic processes that determines the rate of particle attrition. An annular attrition cell was constructed to permit one of the mechanisms of attrition, namely that in failure zones of deforming solids, to be considered in isolation. The cell design permits the normal stress, strain, and strain rate to be varied for particles of initial sizes 200-2000 μm. Sample weights of 100 gm were more than sufficient and results, presented here for three model materials, namely two grades of sodium chloride and one grade of sodium carbonate, were found to be reproducible, systematic and generally independent of sample size.