Andres Julio Ida Kusuma Yossie Triyandi

Unit Operation Experiment Report

The Effect of Physical Properties to Material Flowability

The angle of repose is an engineering property of granular materials. It is the maximum angle of a stable slope of pile formed on horizontal surface. When bulk granular materials are poured onto a horizontal surface, a conical pile will form. The internal angle between the surface of the pile and the horizontal surface is known as the angle of repose and is related to the density, surface area, and coefficient of friction of the material. Material with a low angle of repose forms flatter piles than material with a high angle of repose. The exact angle depends upon conditions such as size, shape, and density of the grains, roughness of the grain surfaces, sorting or mixture of sizes, and height of fall of the grains.

Angle of repose

Hopper angle

In this experiment, we tested the angle of repose of three different materials with same volume (40ml) spilled through hoppers with three different angles (40.72o, 43.35o and 59.19o) but same height (20 cm). We also measured the density and particle size of each material. Material Sugar Salt Breadcrumbs Hopper angle: 40.72o Material Trial Diameter (cm) Height (cm) Time (s) Angle of repose (o) Hopper angle: 43.35o Material Trial Diameter (cm) Height (cm) Time (s) Angle of repose (o) Density (gr/ml) 0.922 1.274 0.204 Particle Size (mm) > 0.63 > 0.063 > 0.5

Sugar 1 7.9 1.8 3.8 24.49 2 7.6 1.7 3.6 24.10 1 8.4 1.4 3.4 18.43

Salt 2 8.1 1.7 3.4 22.77

Breadcrumbs 1 2 7.5 7.9 2.4 2.5 5.2 5.6 32.62 32.33

Sugar 1 7.3 2.1 5 29.91 2 7.4 2.1 4.2 29.58 1 8.1 1.8 2.8 23.96

Salt 2 7.9 2.1 3.4 27.99

Breadcrumbs 1 2 8.4 7.9 2.25 2.3 7.4 9.2 28.18 30.21

Andres Julio Ida Kusuma Yossie Triyandi

Unit Operation Experiment Report Hopper angle: 59.19o Material Trial Diameter (cm) Height (cm) Time (s) Angle of repose (o)

Sugar 1 7.6 2 3.5 27.76 2 7.5 2 3.4 28.07 1 7.7 1.7 3 23.82

Salt 2 8 1.9 2.8 25.41

Breadcrumbs 1 2 8.2 8.2 2.5 2.4 6 5.6 31.37 30.34

From the result of the experiment, salt has the smallest angle of repose and particle size among the three materials. As particle size decreases, the angle of repose is supposed to be bigger because smaller particles will have dominant cohesive and adhesive forces compared to particle weight. In bigger particles, gravity plays a dominant role in forming smaller angle of repose. However, another factor that affects the angle of repose is the density. Salt has the density of 1.274 gr/ml which is the highest of the three materials. Angle of repose varies inversely with density. Evidently, as in the case of increase in size of fragment, increase in density causes the pull of gravity on the fragments to become relatively more powerful than the friction between them. Thus, the surface slope becomes smaller as the density increases. Inversely, breadcrumbs have the biggest angle of repose ranges from 28.18o to 32.63o because of the low level of density (0.204 gr/ml). Regarding the flow time, we can see that sugar flows faster in 59.19o; breadcrumbs in 40.72o; and salt in 59.19o. No material flows the fastest in 43.35o because the other angle is more matched with the materials flowability, even breadcrumbs was heaped up. Breadcrumbs were also heaped up in 40.72o although sugar and salt has faster time required to flow in that angle. It shows that breadcrumbs have the worst flowability between those three materials. Good hopper angle should make the materials flow smoothly until the materials are completely dropped. Among the three hopper angles, the best angle for the materials is the hopper with angle 59.19o. Although salt and sugar flow faster in 40.72o, breadcrumbs were heaped up there because of the higher level of density. Since good hopper should be matched with different materials, so the best angle in this experiment is 59.19o because all sample materials flow quite fast and no one of the materials were heaped up. References: Prescott, James K et al., On Powder Flowability, in Pharmaceutical Technology (October 2000). Burkalow, Anastasia Van, Angle of Repose and Angle of Sliding Friction, in Bulletin of the Geological Society of America Vol. 56 (New York, June 1945) pp. 669-708. J. Marinelli et al., Solve Solids Flow Problems in Bins, Hoppers, and Feeders, (Westford, June 2001).