Uniaxial Unconfined Yield Strength (uUYS) can be used to assess and rank powder flowability for a wide range of powder handling processes in various industries, including Chemical, Food, Construction and Pharmaceutical.
Uniaxial testing first involves the construction of a powder column at a given Major Principal Stress (MPS or σ1), the confining sleeve is then removed, before the freestanding column of material is fractured.
The force required to break the column informs on the uUYS (σC) of the powder. The UPT also allows bulk powder properties such as density and compressibility to be determined.
Consolidation studies can also be conducted in a range of environments using an off-instrument Consolidation Station. Samples can be consolidated for extended periods of time, at a specific humidity and/or temperature.
Our new application note “Uniaxial Powder Testing for Optimising High Shear Wet Granulation” presents a study using the Uniaxial Powder Tester (UPT) to characterise a range of pharmaceutical blends and the corresponding granulates to illustrate how uUYS values can clearly differentiate between the formulations and quantify the impact of the granulation process conditions.