Development of Forecast Formulas for Assessing the Dust Formation Tendency of Moist Bulk Materials Using the UNC Dustiness Tester

The typically undesired release of particles from bulk materials can occur in a wide range of material-handling processes and thus present a hazard to humans and the environment. Therefore, the dust formation tendency is an important material property and depends on the specific type of stress. A forecast of the dust formation tendency could simplify and expedite the assessment of possible hazard potentials as it would eliminate the need for comprehensive testing. For this paper, the UNC dustiness tester was applied to analyze the dust formation tendency of nine different materials. Based on the results obtained and taking account of the measurement method, it was possible to develop an apparatus-specific forecast parameter, which allowed the derivation of empirical forecast formulas for the UNC dustiness tester.