It is a wise mans part, rather to avoid sickness, than to wishe for medicines. ~Thomas More, Utopia

It is a wise mans part, rather to avoid sickness, than to wishe for medicines. ~Thomas More, Utopia
It is a wise mans part, rather to avoid sickness, than to wishe for medicines. ~Thomas More, Utopia

Tuesday, 24 December 2013

PRACTICAL IV : ANGLE OF REPOSE

TITLE
Angle of repose

OBJECTIVE
To evaluate angle of repose of different compositions of sand and factors affecting the angle of repose of materials.  

INTRODUCTION
Angle of repose of powder is important in determining good powder flow. Several methods can be used to measure angle of repose of powder. In this experiment, students are given two different materials with different characteristics, which are taken from dried bulk and mixed with glidant.
           
MATERIALS AND APPARATUS
 1. 100g of sand with particle size of various size, 150µm, 355µm, 500 µm, 850 µm,
2. 10 % Magnesium Stearate.

EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES
1.      100g of sand is prepared.
2.      The sand material is poured through a funnel to form a cone.
3.      The tip of the funnel should be held close to the growing cone and slowly raised as the pile grows, to minimize the impact of falling particles.
4.      Stop pouring the material when the pile reached a predetermined height or the base a predetermined width.
5.      Rather than attempt to measure the angle of the resulting cone directly, the height is divided by half the width of the base of the cone.
6.      The inverse tangent of this ratio is the angle of repose.
7.      The experiment is repeated with sand material of different characteristics.

  
RESULTS
 Angle of repose with 1% of glidant
Materials/sand (mm)
Height of the heap without glidant (cm)
Angle of repose without glidant
Height of the heap when added with 5% of magnesium stearate (cm)
Angle of repose with glidant
150
2.2
43.11°
1.7
39.00°
355
2.0
40.40°
2.0
43.60°
500
1.9
38.96°
2.3
47.60°
850
1.8
37.45°
1.9
42.14°
Various sizes
2.3
44.38°
2.9
54.09°

Angle of repose with 5% of glidant
The width of stopper is 2.5 cm.
Materials/sand (mm)
Height of the heap without glidant (cm)
Angle of repose without glidant
Height of the heap when added with 5% of magnesium stearate (cm)
Angle of repose with glidant
150
3.9
57.34°
4.1
58.63°
355
2.2
41.35°
3.5
54.46°
500
1.9
37.23°
2.4
43.83°
850
1.8
35.75°
2.8
48.23°
Various sizes
2.4
43.83°
3.0
50.19°

1.      100g of sand
Particle size of sand
150 µm
355 µm
500 µm
850 µm
Various
Height
4.4 cm
4.2 cm
4.3 cm
4.0 cm
4.0 cm
Half of base width
2.5 cm
2.5 cm
2.5 cm
2.5 cm
2.5 cm
Angle of repose, θ (˚)
θ = tan ̄ ¹ (y/x)
60.40
59.23
59.83
57.99
57.99

90g of sand with 10g of magnesium stearate (10%)
Particle size of sand
150 µm
355 µm
500 µm
850 µm
Various
Height
4.0 cm
2.3 cm
2.2 cm
2.1 cm
2.4 cm
Half of base width
2.5 cm
2.5 cm
2.5 cm
2.5 cm
2.5 cm
Angle of repose, θ (˚)
θ = tan ̄ ¹ (y/x)
57.99
42.61
41.35
40.03
43.83

100g of sands without magnesium stearate:

Materials
Diameter, x(cm)
Height, y(cm)
Angle of repose, θ(˚)  θ = tan ̄ ¹ (y/x)
150µm
2.7
3.2
49.84
355 µm
2.7
2.8
46.04
500 µm
2.7
2.5
42.80
850 µm
2.7
2.3
40.43
Variety of sands
2.7
2.7
45.00

100g of sands with 15% magnesium stearate:


Materials
Diameter, x(cm)
Height, y(cm)
Angle of repose, θ (˚)
θ = tan ̄ ¹ (y/x)
150 µm
2.7
4.1
56.63
355 µm
2.7
3.6
53.13
500 µm
2.7
3.5
52.35
850 µm
2.7
3.3
50.71
Variety of sands
2.7
4.0
55.98


DISCUSSION
There are many factors affecting the angle of repose of a material, which include particle size, individual material, moisture and measurement method of angle of repose.
The individual material will affect the angle of repose, a reflection of the different coefficients of friction between different substances. The size of the particles is a factor. Greater angularity of particles will result in more inter-granular friction and interlocking of particles, contributing to greater shear strength and angle of repose. Other factors being equal, fine grained material will form a shallower pile, with a smaller angle of repose than coarser grains.
Moisture affects the angle of repose, as anyone who has ever built a sand castle can confirm. Water content affects the cohesiveness of particles. If water is added to particles such as sand, water coating the grains would tend to bind them together by its surface tension, giving rise to greater internal cohesion, and therefore shear strength. However, if water is added to completely saturate the pore spaces, the pore water would act as a lubricant between grains and the pore pressure would force the grains apart. Moist sand has a much higher angle of repose than dry sand. Furthermore the method by which the angle of repose is measured can also affect the measurement.
The method used in this experiment to measure angle of repose is called fixed funnel method. However, there are also other methods that can be used to measure the angle of repose of materials
The other methods include tilting box and revolving cylinder method. Tilting Box method is appropriate for fine-grained, non-cohesive materials, with individual particle size less than 10 mm. The material is placed within a box with a transparent side to observe the granular test material. It should initially be level and parallel to the base of the box. The box is slowly tilted at a rate of approximately .3 degrees/second. Tilting is stopped when the material begins to slide in bulk, and the angle of the tilt is measured.
The next method is Revolving Cylinder Method. The material is placed within a cylinder with at least one transparent face. The cylinder is rotated at a fixed speed and the observer watches the material moving within the rotating cylinder. The effect is similar to watching clothes tumble over one another in a slowly rotating clothes dryer. The granular material will assume a certain angle as it flows within the rotating cylinder. This method is recommended for obtaining the dynamic angle of repose, and may vary from the static angle of repose measured by other methods. When describing the angle of repose for a substance, we should always specify the method used.
The glidant added in the experiment is magnesium stearate is used to enhance the flowability of sand mixture. Different concentration of glidant gives different effect on the angle of repose obtained. Generally, powders with angle of repose greater than 50° have unsatisfactory flow whereas powders with angle of repose less than 25° have excellent flow properties.
From the results obtained, there is deviation between the actual angle of repose obtained experimentally with the theoretical value. It showed that some errors had occurred during the experiment. It is suggested that the same person should carry out the experiment from beginning to the end to minimize human error. Furthermore, tapping should be avoided when removing the cylinder to allow the flow of sand. The same measuring method should be utilized throughout the experiment.

CONCLUSION
            The angle of repose depends on the shape, particle size and the cohesive property between particles. The value of the angle of repose will be high if the powder is cohesive and low if the powder is non-cohesive. Glidant added improves flowability of powders thereby decreasing the angle of repose.

REFERENCES
2.      Pharmaceutics, The science of dosage form design (2nd Edition) Michael E.Alton Edinburgh London New York Philadophia St Louis Sydney Toronto  2002.
3.      Physicochemical Principals of Pharmacy (2nd  Edition)
4.      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angle_of_repose



3 comments:

  1. Great details here, better yet to discover out your blog which is fantastic. Nicely done!!! For more visit different diluents in sterile formulation

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for sharing this informative information about magnesium stearate powder with us. It's very helpful. Keep it up!

    ReplyDelete