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1 MAR1992 (R2012)
Method of Determining and Expressing Particle Size of Chopped Forage Materials by Screening
American Society of
Agricultural and Biological Engineers
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ANSI/ASAE S424.1 MAR1992 (R2012)
Revision approved September 1992; reaffirmed February 2012 as an American National Standard
*14 mesh woven wire cloth with 0.64 mm (0.025 in.) diameter wires. All others are Figure 1 Top view of forage particle separator
aluminum sheets or plates. showing screen motion land and feeder position
ANSI/ASAE S424.1 MAR1992 (R2012) Copyright American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers 1
X i geometric mean length of particles on i th screen[ X i
X i 1 ] 1/2
Mi mass on i th screen (actual mass at the conditions of
screening
or percent of total; decimal or percent form)
S gm standard deviation
NOTE: X i is measured manually as described in paragraph 3.5. If it is
less than 1% of the total, it is treated as zero.
4.2.3 Material passing through screen No. 5 and collected in the pan
shall be considered to have a geometric mean length of 0.82 mm (0.0325
in.). This becomes X 6 in equations [1] and [2].
4.2.4 An example of how the equations may be used to find geometric
mean particle length and standard deviation for a sample data set
follows:
Percent mass distribution of a chopped alfalfa sample
4 Data analysis
4.1 Analysis of mass distribution of all chopped forage materials is
based on the assumption that these distributions are logarithmic normally
distributed.
4.2 Calculation of particle size
4.2.1 The size of particles shall be reported in terms of geometric mean
length, X gm , and standard deviation, S gm , by mass.
4.2.2 Calculated values are obtained as follows:
M i log x i
X gm log1 (1)
Mi
where
Xi diagonal of screen openings of the i th screen
X ( i 1 ) diagonal of screen openings in next larger than
the i th screen (just above in a set)
X gm geometric mean length
Figure 3 Cumulative percent undersized particles versus screen diagonal
opening size for alfalfa for graphic determination of mean length
and standard deviation
ANSI/ASAE S424.1 MAR1992 (R2012) Copyright American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers 2
X gm log1 0.038 log 48 0.081 log 22 0.251 log 12.7 0.269 log 7.1 0.342 log 3.04 0.019 log 0.82
0.0380.0810.2510.2690.3420.019
6.95 mm
2 2
48 22 12.7 2 7.1 2 3.04 2
0.82 2 1/2
0.038 log 0.081 log 0.251 log 0.269 log 0.342 log 0.019 log
6.95 6.95 6.95 6.95 6.95 6.95
S gm log1
0.0380.0810.2510.2690.3420.019
2.26
4.2.5 Graphical solutions for geometric mean length and standard References
deviation may be obtained by plotting the results on logarithmic normal
probability graph paper. Fig. 3 shows an example of a plot of the data 1. Finner, M. F., J. E. Hardzinski and L. L. Pagel, 1978. Evaluating particle length
from paragraph 4.2.4 of chopped forages. ASAE Paper No. 78-1047. St. Joseph. MI: ASAE.
where 2. Stockham, J. D. and E. G. Fochtman. 1977. Particle size analysis. Ann Arbor
Science Pub., Inc.
X gm X 50 particle length at 50% probability
S gm X 84 / X 50 standard deviation
X 84 particle length at 84% cumulative probability
ANSI/ASAE S424.1 MAR1992 (R2012) Copyright American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers 3