Universal size distribution of run-of-mine bituminous coals in the Eastern USA

✍ Scribed by Robert Frumerman; Charles Baetens

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1984
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 709 KB
• Volume: 63
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0016-2361
• DOI: 10.1016/0016-2361(84)90158-3

✦ Synopsis

The economic and environmental penalties resulting from the breakage of coal into fines makes it desirable to understand the breakage mechanism. This could lead to the ability to predict and perhaps minimize the generation of fines. Since breakage begins at the mine, data on size distribution of channel samples hand cut from the mine face of 159 mines in the US Appalachian range and reported by the Bureau of Mines were re-evaluated.

Regression analysis to determine Rosin-Rammler constants showed the composite of all 159 coals to have a slope of 0.86 with a correlation coefficient of 0.934. The mean slope for all the coals was 0.876 with a standard deviation of <IO%.

However, the Rosin-Rammler intercept showed wider variation. Other data show similar results within each group for 20 UK coals, 4 continuous-mined US coals and 4 conventional-mined US coals. However, each group differed in slope from each other. This suggests there may be a common property for similar coals within a given region, although the actual Rosin-Rammler slope is affected by the mining technique. The nature of this relationship is not understood.