FRACTAL CHARACTERIZATION OF PULVERIZED MATERIALS

This paper describes preliminary work carried out on the applicability of fractal geometry in describing the products of comminution events. A nickel sulphide ore was subjected to two comminution events, impact shattering and ball milling. Fractal analysis was performed on samples of the resulting comminution products. Two differing fractal populations resulted, with the impact sample exhibiting particles having higher boundary fractal dimensions than the milled sample. The fractal dimension of the impact fragments increased with decreasing size, whereas the milled particles displayed a more complex distribution. The under-fractal distributions, of the two populations of fragments, generate straight lines when plotted on Gaussian probability paper. This leads to the possibility of being able to predict the distribution of fragments, in fractal terms, of a particular material when subjected to comminution.