Mechanical Operations

Around 75% of chemical manufacturing processes involve small solid particles at some point. Proper design and handling of these fine particles often makes the difference between success and failure of the product. Many products such as catalysts, pigments, fertilizers, cements, ceramics and pharmaceuticals are currently manufactured in particulate forms. Mechanical Operations deal with Science and Technology of particulate matter, which is a multidisciplinary field including Materials Science, Environmental, Biomedical, Aerospace, Agricultural, Chemistry, Microbiology and Cell Science, Pharmacy and Medicine. The primary objective of this course is to
• identify the important physical mechanisms occurring in processes involving particles
• discuss unit operation and its role in Chemical industries, characteristics of particulate solids, Principles of size reduction, particle dynamics and separation of particles
• formulate and solve mathematical descriptions of such processes

Week 1
Introduction
Characterization of a single particle
Characterization of collection of particles

Week 2
Fine grain size distribution
Effectiveness of screen
Industrial screening equipment
Size reduction

Week 3
Laws of comminution
Examples of laws of comminution
Size reduction equipment

Week 4
Particle dynamics
Particle dynamics – Examples
Classification and Jigging