Size reduction of polystyrene in a shaker bead mill - kinetic aspects

This paper reports an experimental study of polystyrene grinding in a shake r bead mill. The objective is to characterize the influence of the operatin g conditions on the evolution of the particle size. The effects of temperat ure, vibration frequency, and bead and polymer loads have been examined. Gr inding kinetics have been predicted by combinations of four log-normal laws . The number of sub-populations used for the prediction has been defined af ter SEM observations. The kinetic parameters (mean size, standard deviation and proportionality coefficient) of the different laws have been determine d and their evolution during grinding has been analysed. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.