Powder Flowability Basics-Virendra Puri, Professor & Graduate Study Chair, Penn State Universiy

Understanding of the basics of flowability of powders is essential to successful design and economical operation of numerous unit operations in several industries such as pharmaceutical, energy, chemical, ceramic, powdered metal, food, agricultural, construction, and mining and minerals. The major unit operations include: storage, flow, mixing/segregation, granulation, size reduction, and drying. It is well known and documented that flowability plays a decisive role in process equipment design, sampling, and quality control of raw materials. In this workshop, basics of the flowability of powders at an introductory level are presented. To gain an understanding, a most widely used approach to describe flowability is introduced. In order to complement, some of the commonly used equipment to quantify flowability is introduced. Further reinforcement of the basics and measurement of flowability is done through solving of several simple-to-follow interactive example problems derived from the real-world. This course assumes no previous knowledge of powder flowability, and will be beneficial to anyone desiring to gain rapidly an overview of the basics of powder flowability.