Densification of bulk materials in process engineering

Bulk density and compactibility of bulk materials play an important role in process engineering. Reliable data are required for dimensioning plants to determine volumes of apparatus or for supplying load data for static design. Furthermore, they are used to produce sinter bodies or catalyst beds and to characterise bulk materials. While compression by normal stress can be reproduced and mathematically described, the influence of shocks and vibrations has hardly been investigated. All known standard methods for bulk material compression specify an individual equipment. The parameters of the shocks or vibrations, however, have not yet been defined. So an investigation project was started to examine the influence of defined shocks and vibrations for bulk material compression. Shocks and vibrations can be controlled by an electrodynamic shaker. First results will be presented for powders.