Some Characteristic Qualities of Powder Materials

Abstract

Is it possible to tell in advance if a material has a tendency to flood, or not? Powder materials often behave like liquids when aerated. There are engineers who still have not heard about these, even though they are used in solving material handling problems. Bad experiences are often their first meeting with the problem, a meeting characterized by surprise and trouble. At Fiskaa Verk, Elektrokemisk A/S, a particular problem with flooding of ground calcined anthracite was successfully solved by Dr. Jenike, and the method is described in [1]. Problems of this type are common, and in order to prevent such incidents in the future, some tests were made to find out if it is possible in advance to decide whether a material has a tendency to flood or not. A simple method was arrived at. Some characteristic qualities helping to clarify the problems of powder materials are also described.