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Determination of the sphericity of granular

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Article in Journal of Food Engineering · June 2005

DOI: 10.1016/j.jfoodeng.2004.06.014

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 Journal of Food Engineering 68 (2005) 385–390
www.elsevier.com/locate/jfoodeng

Determination of the sphericity of granular food materials

Mustafa Bayram *

Faculty of Engineering, Department of Food Engineering, University of Gaziantep, 27310-Gaziantep, Turkey

Received 2 February 2004; accepted 21 June 2004

Abstract

In the present study, a new dimensional method and equation were developed to calculate the sprecity (/s) of certain shapes
(sphere, cubes, rectangular solid and cylinder) and some granular food materials (wheat, bean, intact red lentil, chickpea and coarse
bulgur).
It was found that increase in /s value caused deviation from the absolute sprecity (/s = 0). Sprecity was constant and independ-
ent of size for certain shapes at 0, 0.00271 and 0.00155 for sphere, cube and cylinder (length = diameter), respectively. Also, the
sphericities of wheat, bean, intact red lentil, chickpea and coarse bulgur were determined as 0.01038, 0.00743, 0.00641, 0.00240
and 0.01489, respectively (P < 0.05). As expected, chickpea had the best and coarse bulgur had the worst sprecity due to their specific
shapes.
Ó 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Sprecity; Wheat; Bean; Lentil; Chickpea; Bulgur

1. Introduction The equivalent diameter is sometimes defined as the

The shape of an individual particle is conveniently ex-
pressed in terms of sprecity /s, which is independent of
particle size. For a spherical particle of diameter Dp,
/s = 1; for a nonspherical particle, the sprecity is defined
by the relation in Eq. (1). For a cylinder where the diam-
eter equals to length, /s is calculated to be 0.874 and for
a cube, /s is calculated as 0.806 (McCabe, Smith, &
Harriott, 1985, 2001; Geankoplis, 1983; Perry, 1984;
Holdich, 2002).
/s
6V p =Dp S p
where /s, Vp, Dp and Sp are sprecity, volume of one par-
ticle, equivalent or nominal diameter of particle and sur-
face area of one particle, respectively.
*
Corresponding author. Tel: +90 342 360 1200x2303; fax: +90 342
360 11 05.
E-mail address: mbayram@gantep.edu.tr
diameter of a sphere of equal volume. For granular
materials, however, it is difficult to determine exact vol-
ume and surface area of a particle to obtain the equiva-
lent diameter, and Dp is usually taken to be the nominal
size based on screen analyses, visual length measure-
ments or microscopic examination. The surface area
may be found from adsorption measurements or from
the pressure drop in a bed of particles and Eq. (1) used
to calculate /s. For many crushed materials /s is be-
tween 0.6 and 0.8, but for particles rounded by abrasion
ð1Þ /s may be as high as 0.95 (Geankoplis, 1983; Perry,
1984; McCabe et al., 1985, 2001; Holdich, 2002).
As explained above, the main problem in having
irregular shape granular materials is the calculation
of the exact volume and surface area. High-level mathe-
matical formulas should be used to calculate the
volume and surface area. Additionally, instead of a cal-
culation method, advanced experimental methods can
be used (Geankoplis, 1983; McCabe et al., 1985, 2001).

0260-8774/$ - see front matter Ó 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jfoodeng.2004.06.014
386 M. Bayram / Journal of Food Engineering 68 (2005) 385–390

Therefore, the determination of the solid mechanical 2.3. Drawing of shapes

and handling properties of any granular food material
using sprecity is very difficult and also not very practical. All drawings on a 1:1 scale were made using Auto-
The present study deals with (1) the derivation of a CAD 2000 Engineering Drawing Software (AutoDesk,
sprecity equation, (2) the determination of the sprecity USA).
values of certain shapes i.e. sphere, cubes, rectangular
solids and cylinders having different dimensions, (3)
2.4. Calculation of sprecity
the application of the sprecity equation to some granu-
lar food products.
Sprecity was calculated using Microsoft Office Excel
Software (Microsoft, USA).

2. Materials and methods

2.5. Statistical analysis
2.1. Materials
An ANOVA analysis was performed for average
Wheat (Triticum durum, Fırat-98, harvesting year diameters and sprecity value to determine significant dif-
2003), bean (Tokat species, harvesting year 2003), red ferences (P < 0.05). DuncanÕs multiple range tests were
lentil (Kızıltepe species, harvesting year 2003), chickpea
(Elbistan species, harvesting year 2003) and coarse bul-
gur (produced from Triticum durum ‘‘Fırat-98’’, harvest-
ing year of wheat and processing year for bulgur 2003)
were obtained from Arbel Legumes and Cereals Co.
(Mersin, Turkey). The population of each sample was
10.

2.2. Measurement of dimensions

Dimensions were measured using a micrometer

(Mitutoyo, No: 505-633, Japan) in millimetre. Measure-
ments were carried out through crossing the origin of
the materials by determining orifin with measuring the
distance of a line through the origin.
Fig. 1. Illustration of measuring sides for certain shapes. (For sphere:
D is diameter. For cube and rectangular solid: D1, D2, D3 are edges;
D4, D5, D6, D7 are diagonals; D8, D9, D10, D11, D12, D13 are cross-sides.
For cylinder: D1 is diameter; D2 is length; D3, D4, D5, D6, D7, D8, D9,
D10 are diagonals.)

Table 1
Dimensional values and formulas for certain shapes
Shapes Dimensional values and formulas N /s
Sphere D as a given 1 0 (size independent and constant)

Cube D1 = D2 = D3 as given 13 0.00271 (size independent and constant)

D4 ¼ D5 ¼ D6 ¼ D7 ¼ ð3D21 Þ1=2
D8 ¼ D9 ¼ D10 ¼ D11 ¼ D12 ¼ D13 ¼ ð2D21 Þ1=2

Rectangular solid D1,D2,D3 as given 13 Size dependent and changes with dimensions
D4 ¼ D5 ¼ D6 ¼ D7 ¼ ðD21 þ D22 þ D23 Þ1=2
D8 ¼ D9 ¼ ðD21 þ D23 Þ1=2
D10 ¼ D11 ¼ ðD22 þ D23 Þ1=2
D12 ¼ D13 ¼ ðD21 þ D22 Þ1=2

Cylinder D1,D2 as given 10 Size dependent and changes with dimensions

D4 ¼ D5 ¼ D6 ¼ D7 ¼ D8 ¼ D9 ¼ D10 ¼ ðD21 þ D22 Þ1=2

Cylinder (for length = diameter) D1 = D2 as given 10 0.00155 (size independent and constant)
D4 ¼ D5 ¼ D6 ¼ D7 ¼ D8 ¼ D9 ¼ D10 ¼ ð2D21 Þ1=2
For sphere: D is diameter. For cube and rectangular solid: D1, D2, D3 are edges; D4, D5, D6, D7 are diagonals; D8, D9, D10, D11, D12, D13 are cross-
sides. For cylinder: D1 is diameter; D2 is length; D3, D4, D5, D6, D7, D8, D9, D10 are diagonals. N shows the number of measurement, i.e. the number
of measured diameters.
 M. Bayram / Journal of Food Engineering 68 (2005) 385–390 387

Table 2
Illustration of actual and equivalent shapes, and Sphericity values for certain shapes
Shapes Actual shape Equivalent spherical shape Dimensions N D /s
Sphere D=2 1 2 0
D=5 5 0
D = 111 111 0

Cube D1 = D2 = D3 = 2 2.833 0.00271

D4 = D5 = D6 = D7 = 3.464
D8 = D9 = D10 =
D11 = D12 = D13 = 2.828

D1 = D2 = D3 = 10 13 14.164 0.00271
D4 = D5 = D6 = D7 = 17.321
D8 = D9 = D10 = D11 =
D12 = D13 = 14.142

D1 = D2 = D3 = 7 9.915 0.00271
D4 = D5 = D6 = D7 = 12.124
D8 = D9 = D10 = D11 = D12 =
D13 = 9.899

Rectangular solid D1 = 3, D2 = 2, D3 = 1 2.998 0.00603

D4 = D5 = D6 = D7 = 3.742
D8 = D9 = 3.162
D10 = D11 = 2.236
D12 = D13 = 3.606

D1 = 8, D2 = 5, D3 = 4 13 8.273 0.00477
D4 = D5 = D6 = D7 = 10.247
D8 = D9 = 8.944
D10 = D11 = 6.403
D12 = D13 = 9.434

D1 = 5, D2 = 5, D3 = 2 5.929 0.00488
D4 = D5 = D6 = D7 = 7.349
D8 = D9 = 5.385
D10 = D11 = 5.385
D12 = D13 = 7.071

Cylinder D1 = 1, D2 = 2 2.089 0.00313

D4 = D5 = D6 = D7 =
D8 = D9 = D10 = 2.236

D1 = 3, D2 = 7 10 7.093 0.00377
D4 = D5 = D6 = D7 =
D8 = D9 = D10 = 7.615

D1 = 2, D2 = 11 10.244 0.00720
D4 = D5 = D6 = D7 =
D8 = D9 = D10 = 11.18

Cylinder (for length = diameter) D1 = D2 = 1 1.331 0.00155

D4 = D5 = D6 = D7 =
D8 = D9 = D10 = 1.414

D1 = D2 = 2 10 2.663 0.00155
D4 = D5 = D6 = D7 =
D8 = D9 = D10 = 2.828

D1 = D2 = 7 9.320 0.00155
D4 = D5 = D6 = D7 =
D8 = D9 = D10 = 9.899
For sphere: D is diameter. For cube and rectangular solid: D1, D2, D3 are edges; D4, D5, D6, D7 are diagonals; D8, D9, D10, D11, D12, D13 are cross-
sides. For cylinder: D1 is diameter; D2 is length; D3, D4, D5, D6, D7, D8, D9, D10 are diagonals. N shows the number of measurement, i.e. the number
of measured diameters.
388 M. Bayram / Journal of Food Engineering 68 (2005) 385–390
carried out to determine homogeneous groups (SPSS 8.0
Statistical Software, SPSS Inc., USA).
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Derivation of sprecity equation
In the present model, equivalent or nominal diameter
for irregular shape materials was accepted as the average
dimension to obtain an equivalent sphere. Differences
between average diameter and actual measured dimen-
sions were determined with the sum of square of differ-
ences. When this difference is divided by the square of
product of the average diameter and number of meas-
urements, it gives a fraction for the approach of the
slope to an equivalent sphere i.e. sprecity. Therefore,
Eq. (2) was derived as
RðDi  DÞ
2 diameter and length was more spherical than a cube
/s ¼ 2
ð2Þ
ðDN Þ
where /s is the sprecity value, Di is any measured dimen-
sion, D is average dimension or equivalent diameter and
N is the number of measurements. Increase in the N in-
creases the accuracy.
As a note, in Eq. (1), /s for a sphere was 1, while in
Eq. (2), /s for a sphere was 0. In other word, an increase
in /s value using Eq. (2) shows the deviation from the
sprecity i.e. the opposite to Eq. (1).
The applicability and proof of Eq. (2) was carried out
using the following shapes: sphere, cube, rectangular
solid and cylinder. The measured dimensions of certain
shapes are illustrated in Fig. 1 and Table 1. As examples,
dimensions were given and their equivalent sphere
shapes are shown in Table 2. It should be noted that,
for a sphere that had any dimension or diameter, its
sprecity value was always zero and it was size independ-
ent (Eq. (2), Tables 1 and 2). Therefore, a sphere is a
perfect shape for sprecity.
A cube had a constant sprecity value of 0.00271 and it
was also size independent, similar to the sphere (Eq. (2),
Tables 1 and 2). Its equivalent sphere was illustrated in
Table 2 as an example. Rectangular solids have different
edge dimensions; therefore their sprecity depends on
their dimensions ratio. For a cylinder, where the diame-
ter equals to length, sprecity was calculated as 0.00155.
It was constant for any cylinder of equal diameter and
length. In other words, the sprecity of a cylinder (diam-
eter = length) is size independent and constant (0.00155)
similar to a sphere and cube. If the diameter and length
of cylinder was not equal to each other, the sprecity was
changed based on dimensions (Table 2) similar to a rec-
tangular solid.
Front views D1
D1 D1
D3 D2 D3 D4
crease or joint joint
D4 Top views D3
D6 D5
D7 D2 D2
(for wheat and bean) (for intact red lentil) (for chickpea)
Fig. 2. Illustration of measuring sides for wheat, bean, lentil and
chickpea (D1. . .7 show different dimensions for each material where
notated in shapes).
It should be noted that, due to its similarity to a
sphere i.e. /s = 0, a cylinder (/s = 0.00155) with equal
(/s = 0.00271) (Tables 1 and 2). It was also correlated
with the literature reports for a cube and cylinder i.e.
sprecity is 1, 0.874 and 0.804 for sphere, cylinder and
cube, respectively (Geankoplis, 1983; Perry, 1984; McC-
abe et al., 1985, 2001; Holdich, 2002).
Eq. (2) was also used to determine the sphericities of
some granular food materials i.e. wheat, bean, intact red
lentil, chickpea and coarse bulgur. The goal of the selec-
tion of these five materials was important due to their
different shapes, these being a long ellipsoid, a wide
ellipsoid, a disc, a sphere and an irregular shape, respec-
tively. The experiments were made on 10 granules for
each material and their averages were determined, and
then statistically analysed (P < 0.05, Fig. 2, Tables 3
and 4).
As expected, due to the spherical shape of chickpea, it
had the best /s-value (0.00240, the nearest value to zero
or sphere) (P < 0.05, Table 4). Then, intact red lentil had
the second best spherical shape (/s = 0.00641, P < 0.05,
Table 3).
The shapes of the wheat and bean kernels are ellip-
soid. But, former is long in contrast to the latter one.
Due to its length, the sprecity of wheat (/s = 0.01038)
was lower than that of bean (/s = 0.00743, P < 0.05, Ta-
ble 3).
Bulgur is an irregular shaped granular food product
and it is obtained by cooking, drying, dehulling and
grinding operations (Bayram, 2000; Bayram & Öner,
2002; Bayram, Kaya, & Öner, 2004a, 2004b). The grind-
ing operation causes bulgur to have an irregular shape.
Dimensions for the bulgur granules were measured
along different axes (12 dimensions were measured). Its
sprecity was the lowest one, as expected, i.e.
/s = 0.01489 (Table 4, P < 0.05).
 M. Bayram / Journal of Food Engineering 68 (2005) 385–390 389

Table 3
Results for dimensions and sphericity values for wheat, bean and red lentil
Granular Parameters Samples
food
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
products
Wheat Dimensions D1 3.65 3.60 3.45 3.50 3.25 3.40 3.50 3.10 3.10 3.05
D2 = D3 5.30 5.40 5.20 5.40 5.35 5.10 5.60 5.45 5.30 5.30
D4 3.15 2.95 3.15 3.45 2.80 3.05 3.10 3.55 2.70 2.60
D5 = D6 5.05 4.80 5.10 5.00 5.05 4.80 4.60 4.60 4.30 4.85
D7 7.35 7.40 7.50 7.00 7.20 7.00 7.40 7.50 6.95 7.25

N 7
D 4.979 4.907 4.957 4.964 4.864 4.750 4.914 4.893 4.564 4.743
/s 0.00902 0.01039 0.01010 0.00742 0.01110 0.00907 0.01065 0. 01075 0.01228 0.01305

Average D for 10 4.854a

samples
Average /s for 10 0.01038a
samples

Bean Dimensions D1 5.80 4.90 5.50 4.85 5.50 5.45 5.05 5.50 5.45 5.40
D2 = D3 9.20 9.70 8.95 8.70 9.15 8.50 8.50 8.45 9.50 8.40
D4 7.40 7.55 6.85 7.60 7.40 8.00 7.75 7.70 7.55 7.45
D5 = D6 10.40 10.25 9.05 11.15 9.80 10.00 10.00 10.15 10.60 9.65
D7 12.80 12.90 11.65 12.6 12.30 12.20 12.10 12.50 12.45 11.75

N 7
D 9.314 9.321 8.571 9.250 9.014 8.950 8.843 8.986 9.379 8.671
/s 0.00719 0.00881 0.00628 0.00981 0.00679 0.00671 0.00760 0. 00744 0.00724 0.00644

Average D for 10 9.030b

samples
Average /s for 10 0.00743b
samples

Intact red lentil Dimensions D1 2.85 2.70 2.75 2.60 2.60 2.45 2.50 2.65 2.35 2.50
D2 4.30 4.45 4.25 4.35 4.15 3.75 3.85 4.10 3.90 3.90
D3 = D4 3.60 3.65 3.55 3.55 3.40 3.15 3.05 3.20 3.20 3.05

N 4
D 3.588 3.613 3.525 3.513 3.388 3.125 3.050 3.288 3.163 3.125
/s 0.00511 0.00736 0.00567 0.00779 0.00655 0.00542 0.00598 0.00626 0.00754 0.00642

Average D for 10 3.344c

samples
Average /s for 10 0.00641b
samples
Different superscript letters indicate statistically significant differences exist at a = 0.05 for average diameter and sphericity values for 10 samples.
Means for groups in homogeneous subsets are displayed. Based on Type III Sum of Squares. DuncanTest was applied. N shows the number of
measurement i.e. the number of measured diameters. D1. . .12 show the dimensions for each material where noted in Fig. 2.

4. Conclusions also be measured using image analysis or microscopic

Due to important problems in available measuring
and calculation methods to determine exact volume
and surface area for granular materials, use of Eq. (1)
is very difficult. Therefore, Eq. (2) in the present study
can be used easily for solid mechanics and handling
operations to determine the sprecity of granular materi-
als instead of Eq. (1). Measurements of dimensions can
methods for very fine granular products.
According to the present method and Eq. (2), the
sprecity values of certain shapes were constant and inde-
pendent to size at 0, 0.00271 and 0.00155 for sphere,
cube and cylinder (length = diameter), respectively. As
expected, the order of sprecity of granular food mate-
rials were chickpea > intact red lentil > bean > wheat >
coarse bulgur.
390 M. Bayram / Journal of Food Engineering 68 (2005) 385–390

Table 4
Results for dimensions and sphericity values for chickpea and coarse bulgur
Granular Parameters Samples
food
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
products
Chickpea Dimensions D1 7.85 7.85 7.65 7.55 7.95 8.05 7.65 8.55 8.20 8.30
D2 8.80 8.60 8.50 8.70 8.60 9.40 9.90 10.10 10.15 10.15
D3 7.90 7.60 8.20 7.45 8.00 7.75 7.75 8.00 8.15 7.70

N 3
D 8.183 8.017 8.117 7.900 8.183 8.400 8.433 8.883 8.833 8.717
/s 0.00095 0.00094 0.00063 0.00172 0.00043 0.00243 0.00505 0.00334 0.00370 0.00477

Average D for 10 8.367d

samples
Average /s for 10 0.00240c
samples

Coarse bulgur Dimensions D1 4.70 5.50 4.80 5.55 5.65 4.10 4.00 4.75 4.50 5.05
D2 2.50 2.65 2.80 2.80 2.90 2.80 2.40 2.40 2.65 2.85
D3 1.45 1.85 1.60 1.80 1.40 1.20 1.40 1.40 1.55 1.30
D4 4.15 5.25 4.65 5.30 5.45 3.90 3.85 4.60 4.30 5.00
D5 2.60 5.10 4.45 5.15 5.30 3.80 3.60 4.50 4.05 4.85
D6 2.25 4.90 4.10 5.30 5.10 3.45 3.45 4.25 3.85 4.35
D7 2.15 1.95 2.90 2.85 3.35 2.95 2.65 2.65 2.75 3.55
D8 2.35 2.10 3.15 2.95 3.65 3.05 2.85 2.75 2.95 3.05
D9 2.40 1.90 3.20 3.10 3.50 3.40 3.00 2.90 3.05 3.45
D10 3.30 2.85 1.65 1.90 1.55 1.30 1.55 1.55 1.65 1.45
D11 3.20 2.95 1.80 2.10 1.90 1.55 1.85 1.65 1.85 1.75
D12 1.70 3.10 2.15 2.05 2.15 1.80 1.90 1.85 2.00 2.05

N 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12
D 2.519 3.085 2.865 3.142 3.223 2.562 2.500 2.712 2.704 2.977
/s 0.01156 0.01703 0.01344 0.01759 0.01878 0.01342 0.01054 0.01734 0.01211 0.01713

Average D for 10 2.829e

samples
Average /s for 10 0.01489d
samples
Different superscript letters indicate statistically significant differences exist at a = 0.05 for average diameter and sphericity values for 10 samples.
Means for groups in homogeneous subsets are displayed. Based on Type III Sum of Squares. DuncanTest was applied.N shows the number of
measurement i.e. the number of measured diameters. D1. . .7 show the dimensions for each material where notated in Fig. 2.

Acknowledgement
I wish to thank Arbel Legume and Cereal Co. Mer-
sin, Turkey for provision of the samples.
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