AN ALGORITHM FOR DETERMINATION OF THE SIZE-DEPENDENT BREAKAGE FREQUENCY OF DROPLETS, FLOCS AND AGGREGATES

A method, based on the use of discrete size classes, is developed to extract size dependent breakage frequencies from sequential measurements of the size distribution. In order to obtain good resolution and allow for several breakage modes, interlaced Fibonacci series are used to define the size classes. Both binary and ternary breakage are considered. An approach based on Kernel Discriminant Analysis is used to focus the breakage at the discrete size classes. The algorithm is tested using simulated distribution data. The sensitivity of the retrieved breakage frequencies to the assumed progeny distribution and to the number of breakage events between samples is considered. The numerical experiments show that the method is effective even when the breakage mechanism is not well understood.