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From Single Particle Interactions to Bulk Powder Flow: Application to Uranium Oxide Powders
Author(s) -
Quintanilla Miguel A. S.,
George Matthieu,
Goddard Dave T.,
Semeraz J. Terry
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
particle and particle systems characterization
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.877
H-Index - 56
eISSN - 1521-4117
pISSN - 0934-0866
DOI - 10.1002/ppsc.200601019
Subject(s) - particle (ecology) , uranium oxide , mica , materials science , flow (mathematics) , uranium , oxide , nanotechnology , granular material , planar , composite material , mechanics , metallurgy , computer science , physics , oceanography , geology , computer graphics (images)
The increase in computational power has made it possible to simulate the behaviour of granular materials in realistic situations. However there is a lack of knowledge of the values of the particle properties that are needed as input parameters to computer simulations for many materials used in the nuclear industry. The Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) is a good candidate tool for the measurement of individual particle properties. In the study presented here, an AFM has been used to measure the interaction forces (normal or lateral) between particles and to characterise the topography of the contact areas, in the case of both model systems (spherical glass particles and planar mica surfaces) and industrially relevant systems involving irregular uranium oxide particles. It will be shown how these experiments provide useful information for the analysis of the flow properties of a powder. The possible use of this experimental data in the simulation of bulk powder flowing behaviour will be discussed.