Segregation of Particulate Solids - a Review

Particulate solids segregation is a very broad and complex phenomenon which occurs in various areas of process plant. One such area that has seen an increase in research is the segregation process present when charging storage vessels, where several phenomena have important roles to play. It is now widely understood that the feedrate, the angle of charge, bin geometry and particle characteristics will all influence the extent to which a material will segregate within this area. However, the knowledge of the interaction and extent to which each phenomenon acts is not advanced enough at present to allow engineers to predict in a quantitative sense the magnitude of this potential problem. This paper includes a review and comparison of research based on experimental investigations undertaken to date utilising both industrial and bench sized types of segregation equipment. It is concluded that none of the mathematical models so far derived to predict the extent of potential segregation have proved general enough to be used for all scenarios.