A study of wet granule breakage in a breakage-only high-shear mixer.

• Detailed experimental study of the breakage of preformed wet granules. • Well-defined flow conditions in which no agglomeration occurs (breakage-only). • Results for effects of different system parameters on the breakage of granules. • Development of a population balance model to describe breakage process. In high-shear wet granulation, breakage and attrition play an important role but are the least understood among all rate processes. To understand these phenomena, experiments were performed in a breakage-only granulator using pre-made granules. Non-granulating wet sand was used as the shearing medium in the granulator. A size analysis of the granules was done before and after the experiment for each trial in order to get a rough estimate of the size range of the granules after the breakage experiment. The number of granules broken and the granules mass change (before and after the experiment) were recorded after each experiment, in order to measure the extent of granule breakage in a granulator. Experimental results showed that formulation properties and operating parameters significantly influence the breakage behaviour. Population balance simulations were performed for breakage-only granulation and the simulation results were found to be in reasonable agreement with the experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]