Particle size distribution determination using acoustic information

Abstract

A desire to increase the efficiency of the comminution process in mineral processing systems has led to the need of determining the size distribution of ore particles at various stages in the system. This paper presents a method to achieve this from the acoustic signal generated when the particles impact on a cantilever bar. The bar is modeled as a linear system which is excited by impulses (impact of particles). The response of the bar is deconvolved from the acoustic signal to obtain an impulse whose amplitude is proportional to the energy of the impact. The feasibility of various transducers and feature extraction techniques are investigated.