Fractal process and particle size distribution in a TiH2 powder milling system

The titanium powder metallurgy with TiH2 powders is a hot topic at present, and it is essential to control the size and distribution of the TiH2 powders during mechanical milling. The fractal behavior of the TiH2-milling is investigated in this paper based on the fractal fragmentation of rock mechanics, characterized by SEM, particle size analysis and calculation. The TiH2-milling system shows multiple-valued fractal dimensions during the different length scales. The particle size distribution of the milled TiH2 powders is limited strictly by the fractal process during short time milling and the weight percentage of a selected particle size range keeps an extremely low rate of change. The results show that the fractal process is useful to explain or estimate the phenomena of the particle size distribution during milling. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.