Aggregate breakup in a contracting nozzle.

The breakup of dense aggregates in an extensional flow was investigated experimentally. The flow was realized by pumping the suspension containing the aggregates through a contracting nozzle. Variation of the cluster mass distribution during the breakage process was measured by small-angle light scattering. Because of the large size of primary particles and the dense aggregate structure image analysis was used to determine the shape and structure of the produced fragments. It was found, that neither aggregate structure, characterized by a fractal dimension d(f) = 2.7, nor shape, characterized by an average aspect ratio equal to 1.5, was affected by breakage. Several passes through the nozzle were required to reach the steady state. This is explained by the radial variation of the hydrodynamic stresses at the nozzle entrance, characterized through computational fluid dynamics, which implies that only the fraction of aggregates whose strength is smaller than the local hydrodynamic stress is broken during one pass through the nozzle. Scaling of the steady-state aggregate size as a function of the hydrodynamic stress was used to determine the aggregate strength.