Further study of grain boundary fracture in the breakage of single multiphase particles using X-ray microtomography procedures

The present work aims to verify the 3D quantitative analysis of grain boundary fracture in the breakage of single multiphase particles using X-ray microtomography. The breakage of single multiphase copper ore particles (6 mm cubic particles) by slow compression was examined. From XMT reconstructed images using the Marching Cube method, interfacial areas between copper mineral grains and host rock were determined for both parent particles and progeny particles. In this way, the specific interfacial area ratio was calculated as a metric for grain boundary fracture. Preferential grain boundary fracture only occurs at low energy dissipation rates and the current results confirm initial results for 3 mm cubes published previously by Garcia et al. (2009).