Yukio Sakurai

Formation of gradient composites using the infiltration mechanism of chloride reduced particles

Abstract The formation process of a compositional gradient mixture was studied to provide fundamental ideas for manufacturing functionally gradient materials, in which chloride reduced metallic particles were infiltrated within a ceramic packing. The experiment using nickel chloride and alumina packing proved that the mixtures formed well controlled compositional gradient profiles. The infiltration process was successively simulated with a filtration theory which allows the design of the optimal gradients. Attention has also been given to the control of designed gradients by using a multi-layer packing composed of different particle diameters. The mixing state of the mixture was evaluated with the quality of mixing derived by using information entropy theory. The mixing calculated from the nickel images observed under electron probe microanalysis proved that me infiltration method was able to fabricate compositional gradient mixtures with satisfactorily homogeneous mixing.

Comminution and Ash Reduction of Coal Particles

In the mineral processing industry, there are two purposes in crushing and grinding operation. Namely one is reduction of the particle size and the other is liberation of the target minerals from locked particles prior to their recovery. To predict the particle size distribution in such process, the population balance method composed of the selective and breakage functions is very useful.