Comminution is an important unit process which consumes large amounts of energy very inefficiently, only 5 to 10% of the input energy going to treat new surfaces. The development of more energy efficient processing necessarily implys a better fundamental understanding of the various mechanisms involved in the fragmentation of particules.
Part A of this report presents a literature review of the subject and situates the context in which this work was performed. Part B describes the experiments performed on the impact of 5 different types of particle on a target . Parts C and D give the experimental results and a tentative interpretation of the phenomena observed. Finally, part E presents the methods being developed for morphological analysis.