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By Paul W. Cleary

"DEM application in mineral processing has for many years been heavily focused on simulating mills of various types. This method can be used to simulate many other aspects of mineral processing operations and can be used both to enhance understanding of the underlying flows and of issues such a breakage, wear, blockage, product degradation, segregation and mixing. The application of DEM to four important classes of non-comminution problems and equipment commonly found in or near mineral processing plants are described. These are:- Particle transport (examples include a conveyor belt and an inclined screw conveyor)- Sampling (assessment of sample bias for cross-stream samplers)- Separation (the efficiency of vibrating screens)- Storage and reclaim (discharge from a multi-port hopper and segregation in a splitter bin with asymmetric ingoing and outgoing conveyor belts, apron feeders and impact plate)."

Jan 1, 2003

By Eberhard Gock

The worldwide implementation of corrosion protection of low alloyed automotive metal sheets by zinc coating has led to supply shortages of zinc free non-alloyed steel scrap in the foundry industry. In a collaboration project, partly financed by the German government, with partners from the automotive industry, zinc metallurgy, scrap trading, foundry industry, and plant construction, a new acid-based pre-dezincification process has been developed, and a pilot plant with throughput of about 100 t/d has been put into operation at the Clausthal Umwelt-Institut GmbH (CUTEC) together with the Clausthal University of Technology in Germany. During the treatment process, acid from a zinc metallurgical plant will be supplied, which can be recycled to the primary zinc extraction process after raising the zinc concentration to more than 130 g/L zinc. This way, the separation of small amounts of iron by precipitation and the electrolytic zinc winning are outsourced and, as a result, the pre-dezincification process runs waste-free. In Germany, the amount of zinc coated ?new scrap? is approx. 3 million t per year with a zinc content of approximately 60,000 t per year. The possible additional incomes for the dezincified steel scrap are in the order of ?40 to ?50 per ton of scrap, the gained zinc content during the acid dezincification defrays the costs of the process, if the throughput is more than 700 t/d. In comparison to conventional dezincification during the electro arc furnace process followed by upgrading in a rotary kiln (Waelz process), the acid dezincification process running at a maximum of 50°C will cut the energy costs by up to 74% and the CO2 emission by up to 88%. In fact, a demonstration plant is being designed right now and will be installed for processing a part of the zinc coated metal scrap from the Volkswagen AG in Wolfsburg, Germany. Keywords: steel scrap, zinc-coated steel, dezincification methods, acid

Sep 1, 2012

By Erico Tabosa, Kym Runge, Peter Holtham

"The distribution of turbulence in an industrial scale mechanical flotation cell and its effect on flotation kinetics was studied using a fully instrumented 3m³ cell. The cell was operated at a copper concentrator in Australia with different combinations of airflow rates, impeller speeds and sizes and cell aspect ratio providing a wide range of hydrodynamic conditions. An analysis of the overall flotation cell performance showed that the overall copper recoveries were very similar for the conditions tested. However, by decoupling pulp effects from froth effects it was possible to evaluate whether the changes made affected the pulp zone and/or froth zone responses. The analysis showed that the overall recovery has the potential to be up to 7% higher, if not limited by froth recovery. The cell hydrodynamics were characterised by the overall energy dissipation rate and, to understand the distribution of turbulence within the cell, localised measurements were made using a piezoelectric vibration sensor. By comparing the metallurgical performance of the cell with the different hydrodynamic conditions it was found that the collection zone flotation rate constant was not directly related to overall energy dissipation, as is commonly observed at laboratory scale, where energy is usually only changed by varying impeller speed. In this study, energy dissipation rate was varied using not only impeller speed, but also the size of the impeller and the cell aspect ratio. In these circumstances, the best correlation was found to be between the collection zone flotation rate constant and the distribution of turbulence, i.e. the size of the turbulent zone."

Jan 1, 2014

By L. Muhr, Y. -T. Tang, M. -O. Simonnot, B. Laubie, R. -L. Qui, Z. Chour

"Agromining aims at recovering metals from different secondary resources with hyperaccumulating plants. These natural plants can selectively concentrate metals at very high level and can be transformed to produce commercial compounds. The classical strategy to recover metals from hyperaccumulator plants is based on hydrometallurgy. It consists of: i) burning the plant to obtain ash, which is a very rich bio-ore without organic matter, ii) transferring the target element(s) into aqueous solution by acid leaching and iii) purifying the leach liquor to obtain the target element(s) in the desired form. This method has enabled us to obtain nickel salts, nickel oxide, zinc and cadmium from different plants. However, it is not possible to apply this approach to recover rare earth elements (REEs) from the fern D. dichotoma, growing on mine tailings in South China. Actually, this plant is very rich in silicon: plant burning gives an amorphous ash, very stable despite severe leaching conditions. Therefore, the strategy has been changed and processes are currently developed to extract REEs by direct leaching of the biomass, without burning the plant. Several conditions (i.e. leaching solutions) have been investigated, showing that a good extraction yield was obtained with HNO3 0.5 N (around 84%). This yield was increased to 99% by adding a complexing resin into the leaching solution. After two-steps of elution, results have shown that is possible to recover 75% of the REEs at 81% purity.INTRODUCTION The demand of rare earth elements (REEs) (including 15 lanthanides, yttrium and scandium) has been growing sharply over the past years, because of their industrial applications. REEs are essential elements for emerging technologies, and are used for example in permanent magnets, lamp phosphors or rechargeable batteries. China is the main producer, and the market supply became tense in 2010 when this country decided to limit exports of these elements. Exploitable mineral resources, as well as REE separation capacity are concentrated in a few countries (e.g. USA, Australia, Malaysia, France), which increases the supply risk. Therefore, these elements are considered as critical raw materials (CRM) for many countries and especially for EU (Fortier and Gambogi, 2017)."

Jan 1, 2018

By Z. M. Dai

Microorganisms in AMD (Acid Mine Drainage) were enriched in 9K culture medium. The enrichment was applied to leach copper pyrite after the microbial community structure and metabolism was stable. Before and after bioleaching, the microbial DNA was extracted and applied to RFLP (restricted fragment length polymorphism) analysis to demonstrate the relationship between the leaching efficiency and the change of microbial community. Atomic absorption spectrometry results showed that when concentration of the pulp was 10% and pH were 1.5, 2.0 and 2.5, the leaching rate were 56%, 57% and 34% on the 18th day respectively. These results indicated that the rise of pH resulted in the decrease of leaching rate. In lower pH condition, the growth of microbe was faster: when pH was 1.5, the microbial cell number reached to 1.4×107cells/mL on the 9th day; while pH was 2.5, the microbial cell number decreased to 4×106cells/mL. The analysis of microbial community structure showed that Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans and Leptospirillum ferrooxidans were dominant species before bioleaching (account for 43% and 32% respectively). And after bioleaching, these two species were still dominant when the initial bioleaching pH were1.5 and 2.0. While the initial bioleaching pH was 2.5, the proportion of these two species decreased. These results demonstrated that the initial bioleaching pH would affect the microbial community structure in bioleaching system at room temperature, and this affect could lead to different copper pyrites bioleaching efficiency.

Jan 1, 2014

By Vinay Jain, Dharmendr Kumar, Beena Rai, Venugopal Tammishetti

"Selective dispersion-flocculation is considered to be an effective process for the beneficiation of ultrafine particles. This process is based on the preferential adsorption of a flocculant on the mineral particles to be flocculated, leaving rest of the mineral suspended. It has been successfully implemented at plant scales for the beneficiation of ultrafine particles of iron ores, for which conventional methods such as gravity separation, magnetic separation and flotation do not work efficiently. However, the key element responsible for the success of any selective flocculation process is the appropriate choice of the flocculant used for achieving the desired selectivity. At our lab, we are working on design and development of such selective reagents for mineral processing applications, including the beneficiation of iron ore slimes, using a combined molecular modeling and experimental approach. In this study we have employed density functional theory (DFT) to calculate the interaction energies and explain the interaction mechanisms of chitosan with the main minerals present in iron ore slimes, namely, hematite [a-Fe2O3], goethite [a-FeO(OH)], gibbsite [a-Al(OH)3] and kaolinite [Al2Si2O5(OH)4]. The magnitudes of the computed interaction energies follow the trend: Hematite > Goethite > Gibbsite ~ Kaolinite Al-OH terminated > Kaolinite Si-O terminated Analysis of the optimized geometries and electronic structures reveals that the O & N atoms of chitosan molecule form coordinate bonds with surface Fe-atoms of hematite while only weak hydrogen bonds are formed in the case of goethite, gibbsite and kaolinite surfaces thus explaining reasons behind the stronger interactions with the hematite surface. The theoretical findings were validated by performing selective flocculation experiments using chitosan as a flocculant. The selective flocculation experimental results show that a final concentrate of ~60% Fe can be obtained from a feed containing 53.13% Fe with Fe recovery of 74%. The mineral estimation in the obtained concentrate indicated that hematite and goethite are recovered in concentrate while gibbsite and kaolinite are rejected in the tails. These observations were consistent with our theoretical findings. Our work highlights the promising role molecular modeling techniques such as DFT can play in the design and development of selective reagents for beneficiation of alumina-rich iron ore slimes."

Jan 1, 2018

By H. M. Yang

Structural alteration of pyrophyllite during mechanical activation in a planetary mill was investigated by X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) techniques. Mechanochemical effect markedly promotes the decrease in reflection intensities with increasing the grinding time. Prolonged grinding causes the pyrophyllite to become the amorphous structure. It can be indicated that pyrophyllite is very susceptible to alteration by grinding. Crystal size (d006) of pyrophyllite appears to be a limit after 2h grinding. IR spectroscopy analysis shows a little alteration in the bands of pyrophyllite after mechanical activation. The results indicate that the ordered structure of pyrophyllite is destroyed and lattice deformation occurs. Porous silica was then successfully prepared via leaching the mechanically activated pyrophyllite. Pyrophyllite was first ground for 6 h. Ground samples were subsequently leached with 4 M hy-drochloric acid at 80 °C for 2 h to produce porous silica with specific surface area of 188.1 m2/g, total pore volume of 0.18 mL/g and average pore size of 3.9 nm from N2 adsorption analysis. Otherwise, the porous silica obtained from direct leaching of the original pyrophyllite only has a specific surface area of 4.3 m adsorption analysis. 2/g and total pore volume of 0.03 mL/g. It is inferred that grinding is favorable for the formation of microstructure pores. It offers a simple and convenient route for the preparation of porous materials from natural minerals.

Jan 1, 2014

By Y. X. Li

In order to control the pulp level in flotation column which has long time-delay and great inertia, and is difficult to establish an accurate mathematical model, a Fuzzy-PID dual mode controller is applied. This method takes advantage of both strong flexibility and good reliability of fuzzy logic and high precision of PID. With the very stable and reliable process instruments, the control system has a good control performance and results the stable control of flotation column.

Jan 1, 2014

By C. P. Lowes

"The REFLUX™ Classifier (RC™) consists of a fluidized bed housing, with a system of parallel inclined channels above. This system performs a simultaneous gravity separation and desliming of the feed material, utilising the inclined channels in order to retain the relatively fine dense particles. These particles promote the formation of an autogenous dense medium within the fluidized bed. Relatively large, low density particles are displaced from the fluidized bed and conveyed upwards through the inclined channels reporting to the overflow with other finer particles. Given the hydrodynamic role of both the particle size and density in determining the particle transport through a water based suspension, all gravity separators operate over a limited size range. In the case of the REFLUX™ Classifier, efficient separations can be produced across a very broad size range, from nearly 10 mm down to 10 m, however, for a given application the size range is much more limited. This study was concerned with the processing of dense minerals over a broad size range, and the need for multistage processing. Here the overflow from the first stage cascades to the second stage, incorporating coarse gangue rejection. This approach is shown to deliver remarkably high grades and recovery.INTRODUCTION The performance of the REFLUXTM Classifier (RC™) in beneficiating fine coal is well documented (Galvin, 2012). Although the technology can be applied to relatively fine particles below 0.1 mm, or coarser particles below 2.0 mm or even 8.0 mm (Galvin et al., 2010), in each case the technology is applicable to limited particle size ranges. In coal preparation, the most common size range is 0.25 to 2.0 mm, covering an eight-fold range in the particle diameter. Coal has a relatively low density, typically below 1600 kg/m3, with a significant portion below 1400 kg/m3. In water, the buoyant density difference (~ 400 kg/m3) is therefore low compared to that of gangue minerals (1600 kg/m3) by a factor of 4, enhancing the potential for separation. Thus, in coal preparation, the technology can be applied over a commensurately broader size range, typically up to eight-fold."

Jan 1, 2018

By Rebecca Hope, Derick Moolman, Frikkie Malan

"Despite the lip service that has been paid to pro-active plant maintenance processes over recent years, a significant portion of maintenance in industry is still reactive. The business driving force to prevent expensive production opportunity costs arising from “break-down maintenance” is obvious. Various benefits can be derived from successfully deploying remote equipment diagnosis technology and associated business processes.From an end-client’s viewpoint these include the ability to predict and take actions to prevent equipment breakdowns, increasing the lifetime of equipment by responding to appropriate operating instructions and therefore improving the return on capital expenditure. Better planning and scheduling of maintenance priorities and resources with performance measures like an Equipment Health Index are also possible. The knowledge that a qualified supplier engineer is constantly in touch with the operating conditions of their equipment, albeit remotely, is more than a comfort, and can be translated into quantifiable cost savings and improved supplier service levels.This paper analyses the reasons for the inadequate level of pro-active plant maintenance practice in industry today, and presents a number of important criteria in selecting appropriate solutions to this problem. A case study of a specific real-time, remote equipment management application is presented."

Jan 1, 2003

By N. ??dyanik, Z. Kugukaldinova, O. Mishurina, Y. Glazkova, E. Mullina

"This paper describes the process flow of a selective processing method for acidic mine waters formed in the copper sulfide industry and characterized by a high content of copper, iron, and manganese ions. The proposed method comprises a series of sequential processes: the 1st stage is the recovery of Cu2+ ions by precipitation, the 2nd stage is the recovery of Fe2+ and Fe3+ ions as a dispersed phase by acid-base precipitation, followed by recovery in the 3rd stage of Mn2+ ions by converting Mn2+ with an oxidizing agent into insoluble forms of manganese and subsequent recovery of the dispersed phase by electroflotation. The developed method was tested on the acidic tailing storage facility (TSF) water of a mining project in the Urals region. The practical results of the implementation of the developed method have shown that its implementation will allow to recover copper, iron, and manganese in the form of salable products with a simultaneous decrease in their concentrations in adjacent water bodies down to the applicable MPCs. The process is a simple one, does not require any sophisticated expensive equipment and can be implemented either as a standalone solution or as part of existing treatment facilities. INTRODUCTION As a result of unsustainable utilization of natural resources in Russia, only a small fraction is processed into commodity products, while the rest is systematically dumped as emissions, effluents, and other wastes, polluting the environment. By amount of waste and concentration of valuable components, those wastes can be classified as aqueous technogenic resources [1, 2]. Therefore, the development of processing methods for this mineral resource category is an urgent and priority task that will significantly improve the industry’s profitability and the environmental conditions in the respective regions. MATERIALS AND METHODS Following research methods were mainly applied in this study: lab-scale and pilot-scale tests in a diaphragmless two-chamber electric flotation cell; for solutions and recoverable process products — chemical analysis using photometric determination techniques for metal cations and atomic adsorption determination techniques for the processing products. The phase composition of the precipitates formed in the process was investigated by X-ray phase analysis in the general-purpose diffractometer with a copper anode DRON-1."

Jan 1, 2018

By D. Hatfield, G. de Jager

"The rapid developments in computer vision and computational resources are creating new possibilities for the use of machine vision systems for industrial control. A number of commercial image analysis systems exist, and research into improved measurements of froth performance is ongoing. An integral part of the implementation of these systems is the validation of the relationship between image analysis measurements and flotation cell performance. This paper discusses the factors affecting concentrate flow and presents the results obtained from one such system with respect to its ability to estimate the flow of concentrate from a flotation cell.The relationship between froth flow speed and the rate of recovery of concentrate from a flotation cell was investigated on two industrial operations, both processing PGM (Platinum Group Metal) bearing ores. Results are presented that show a relationship between froth flow speed and concentrate yield."

Jan 1, 2003

By P. T. Nguyen

The analysis of particle capture by an air bubble by two separate phenomena of collision and attachment has been difficult due to the uncertainty in determining when and where the two phenomena begin and terminate at the bubble surface, respectively. Therefore, a unified analysis was developed by solving the motion equation for the particle capture as one process. No distinction be-tween collision and attachment was made. Both the liquid film described by the micro-hydrodynamic resistance functions and the surface forces were included in the new model. The model predictions with the DLVO (Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek) surface forces did not agree with the experimental trajectories of latex and silica spheres. The model predictions with the inclusion of the non-DLVO attractive surface force agreed with the experimental data. The non-DLVO force reduced the repulsion between the non-attaching particle and the bubble, and significantly increased the attraction between the attaching particle and the bubble. The unified analysis is capable of predicting particle capture without the use of the induction time. The unified analysis also shows significant influence of the short-range hydrodynamic interactions on the collision which has been previously ignored.

Jan 1, 2014

By Arun Appadurai

Pneumatic transport systems play a vital role in conveying discrete particles over a sizable distance with minimal energy consumption. However if such a system is not designed keeping particle physics in mind, it leads to intractable problems which could possibly assume dangerous proportions, including but not limited to expensive redesign of the entire system. This paper describes a novel method, which harnesses the powerful technique of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to investigate a problem occurring in rotary kilns using coal as a major fuel source. In some of the sites, a unique phenomenon of abnormally high CO emission was observed and owing to the highly random nature of occurrence, it was difficult to scientifically investigate the problem and its cause. Most of the published solutions for the high CO problem tend to concentrate on the incomplete combustion aspect of the kiln and resolve the situation by increasing the air supply thereby improving the stoichiometric ratio of combustion. This paper offers an alternate correlation that relates high CO emissions to the phenomenon of coal delivery fluctuations caused by the sub-standard operation of the coal transport system. A CFD model for the coal delivery pipe is validated by utilizing the actual process data sourced from the measurements taken from a functioning plant. The results of the model are used to derive correlative conditions that point to the unstable operating conditions of the coal delivery pipe prevalent in the industry. The conclusions are summarized into a series of recommendations for optimized design of coal delivery systems which are implemented in a pilot plant. The results irrevocably prove a statistically significant reduction in CO emissions without resorting to increased air supply and power consumption. Keywords:CFD, Pneumatic Conveying, Saltation Velocity, Particle Flow

Sep 1, 2012

By Vishal Shukla, Ashok Kumar, Manas Ranjan, D. Chakraborty, Narayan Sharma

Jigging has a very important role in mineral processing Industry. Upgrading of Iron Ore by jigging has been an emerging trend. A detailed investigation is carried out to understand the influence of Jig feed granulometry and bed height during jigging operation. Noamundi jig plant data shows that variation in jig feed granulometry, feed quality and bed height are major contributors to fluctuation in jigging performance. At Noamundi the feed size (-10.0+0.5mm) fraction is used for fines jigging operation. To understand the effect of granulometrey on jig plant performance such as yield, separation efficiency and Fe recovery. In this context The performance of jigging was evaluated by daily average data from jig operation was used to study the influence of feed distribution on jigging performance .Coarser fraction (+6mm) has a positive influence , whereas fines fraction (-0.5mm) tends to lower performance . During Jigging rearrangements of Particles takes place due to an alternate expansion and compaction of Jig Bed .These particles are arranged by increasing density from top to bottom. During the particle stratification, Jig bed physically cut at desired horizontal particle density plant to separate the desired product. Investigation shows that optimum bed height is required at different Jig feed quality to achieve desired product quality, maximum separation efficiency and Fe recovery. This Paper will illustrate role of granulometry and Bed height control on Jigging plant performance.

Jan 1, 2014

By Jihoe Kwon, Daeyang Lee, Mario Fujimura-Kashiwagui, Heechan Cho

"Calcium carbonate is one of the most widely used mineral in today's industries such as plastic, paper and pigment. There are many essential physicochemical properties required by each industry field but the most common requisite is size. One way to achieve appropriate size is grinding. Grinding is typically an energy intensive process, consuming about 40% of total energy cost in mineral process. Due to that reason, optimization of grinding process is a critical element to achieve price competitiveness. Two different type of grinding apparatus were hired to find out optimum condition in terms of energy efficiency. Utilizing samples containing 10, 20, 30 and 40% solids concentrations, a 1l batch type attrition mill was operated as the first grinding step at various operating speed with 1? to 5? grinding media in order to study the optimum operating conditions to reach submicron particles. Next, a 0.15l vertical beads mill was tested as next step with 100? to 500? grinding media to study the optimum conditions in the submicron range. Net energy and the specific energy input was measured to reach stated size ranges. Also, using a back-calculation based on the population balance model further operating conditions were studied. There were several competitive combinations which showed significant energy efficiency improvement when compared with the single step grinding."

Jan 1, 2014

By M. Evertsson, E. Hulthén

"In aggregate production and mining the operators are responsible for controlling and monitoring the process to maintain high plant throughput and safe operation. Operators have to make different decisions to control the process due to changed demand on the operation from both management and conditions of the process. The quality of the response and the time it takes for an operator to respond to altered demand relies on what information is available and the experience of the operator. In this work a dynamic simulation platform has been developed to be used for operator training. Models for representing production units and process control for plant simulations have been developed and implemented in MATLAB/SIMULINK to simulate time-dependent plant behavior. Stochastic and scheduled events are included using the discrete events simulation toolbox SimEvents. The human-machine interface was developed using the human-machine interface software ICONICS. The operators’ cognitive process, in interpreting the plants semantic, has been studied by observations and with informal interviews with operators. This was done to get information about the daily operation and the problems that occur in the process. By interacting with operators that experience different physical interactions with the process; more qualitative e-learning software for supporting operator training in a dynamic operator environment could be developed. The quality of the operator training environment was evaluated with a usability study that was performed with operators and others within the production."

Jan 1, 2014

By Hermann Wotruba, Günther Petzold, Fabian Riedel

"Increased mechanisation in underground stoping operations results in higher waste percentages in the run of mine. A new method of reducing waste is optical sorting. Optical sorters have low maintenance costs and can be installed underground. Rejected waste can be backfilled directly without having to be hoisted, therefore increasing the shaft capacity for a more valuable product.Pre-Concentration by Optical SortingA series of tests with an optical sorter at the laboratories of the Mineral Processing Department of the RWTH Aachen have shown that it is technically possible to sort almost any kind of ROM which has even slight differences in colour (Platinum Reef, Gold Reef, Kimberlites, Industrial Minerals, Aggregates, Coal, etc.).By employing optical sorters prior to conventional sorting plants, it is possible to reduce the amount of waste to be processed. Figure one shows test results of ore which is quite similar in colour to the waste (grey). With increasing waste in the feed, the recovery decreases according to the graph. In figure two, the colour ratio parameter of the sorter was changed with a similar waste percentage in the feed. With increasing loss of ore, a cleaner product can be achieved. Before designing a sorting plant, throughput tests are carried out. Throughputs vary depending on the size range. Sorters have a limit of about 250mm top size. In this upper size range, throughputs of 150t/h can be achieved."

Jan 1, 2003

By Graeme J. Jameson

In conventional flotation machines, the recovery is strongly related to particle size. As particle size increases, the recovery also increases, reaching a maximum in the range 20 to 120µm. Beyond this range however, the recovery declines quite quickly. The reason for the decline in recovery observed with coarse particles can be traced to the effect of turbulence. Bubbles trapped in turbulent eddies rotate rapidly, and when the centrifugal force on a particle exceeds the retaining forces due to surface tension, the particle detaches. Since the centrifugal force varies as the cube of the diameter of the particle, and the attachment force varies simply as the diameter, being proportional to the length of the contact line, it is clear that detachment forces will predominate as the particle size increases. The corollary is that the recovery of coarse particles can be improved if the level of the turbulence in the cell can be reduced to a minimum. In this paper, a new type of flotation machine will be described, in which the particles to be floated are suspended in a fluidized bed. An up flow of fluidizing water is provided, by recycling liquid from the top of the cell. The recycle stream is aerated in a high-energy device that disperses the air into fine bubbles that capture the fines and ultrafines. Results are presented for several minerals and coarse coal. Keyword: fluidized bed flotation

Sep 1, 2012

By Xiaodong Jia, Williams. Richard A.

This paper describes the recent developments, arising from research at Leeds, in the computer modelling of packing of complex shaped particles and prediction of physical properties of the structures represented by the packing. The computer model DigiPac, is capable of packing particles of any shapes and sizes in a container of arbitrary geometry. The ability to predict packing structure of real particle shapes and to compute directly some structure-dependent physical properties (such as liquid permeability, mechanical strength/ stability, compaction and sintering, dissolution and leaching, etc.) is obviously highly desirable and has significant potential in industrial applications. Examples are presented relating to the packing of granular materials.

Jan 1, 2003