Wet Sieve Test

What is Wet Sieve Test?

Wet Sieve Test is a procedure to detect particle size distribution or gradation. The Wet sieve test is used to separate coarse-grained materials from water or other liquids before drying, testing and analyzing the samples, and it is also used to prepare granular samples for particle size analysis by removing fines that may hinder the separation process. For example: removing fine particles that hinder separation, break up clumps or eliminate static electricity.

Why Wet Sieve Test Analysis Is Required?

Wet sieve test analysis is required when sieve analysis of difficult dry materials is not possible.

Wet sieve test sieve analysis or gradation testing determines the size distribution of particles in a given sample. It can be determined whether the design and production requirements are met according to the data analyzed by the wet sieve test.

Application of Wet Sieve Test

The wet sieving test can be used to remove fines from difficult to sieve materials prior to testing and analyzing normal sample materials, suitable for materials that require wet processing, high concentrations of fines, agglomerates, sticky materials.

Typical applications for Wet Sieve Test

Soil and mineral aggregates with high fines content

Fragile but insoluble materials such as coal or other minerals

light powder

agricultural soil with a high clay content

contaminated soil (brownfields)

clay suspensions

river sediments

sludge and glazes

kaolin and fillers

abrasives

micro granulations

Types of Wet Sieve Test

Wet Sieve Test can be divided into two kinds of manual wet sieve test and wet sieve test screening machine in particle size analysis.

Manual Wet Sieve Test: Dry the sample to constant weight and weigh to the nearest 0.1 g

If your sample mixes easily with water:

Place the sample on the test sieve and wash it back and forth with a gentle stream of water from the hose (make sure no sample is lost)

The entire sieve containing wet material should be dried in the oven if possible. It is critical that the temperature does not exceed 230°F (110°C)

After the material has dried thoroughly, the material should be weighed and repeated on the next coarser sieve (**Drying time depends on the characteristics of the material and should be determined by a series of weight checks at intervals until no significant change occurs)

Weigh your sample and analyze it

Wet Sieve Test Screening Machine: Use the wet sieve kit provided by Dahan to complete the material particle size analysis on the wet sieve test sieving machine. Put the sample to be tested into the uppermost sieve frame, fix the sieve group on the wet sieve test sieving machine, add water through the added pipe, and rinse while sieving.

Advantages of Wet Sieve Test

1. Handle materials with high concentration of fine particles and difficult to decompose.

2. Viscous and easy-to-caking materials can be used for materials that cannot be processed by dry screening.

3. Precise screening, can screen 0.025-3mm.

4. It can be turned off at a fixed time. The time is adjustable from 1s to 99h to ensure the repeatability and consistency of the experiment.

5. Materials can be classified into various specifications, and can accurately separate 8 particle segments at the same time.

How does Wet Sieve Test work?

When performing the Wet Sieve Test, the vibration motor is used as the vibration source, and the vibration of the vibration motor is used to drive the vibration of the screen machine, and the vibration is transmitted to the screen frame through the machine base, and water is added to wash while vibrating, so that the material particles smaller than the mesh are dropped. Enter the lower sieve frame for sieving, and only the materials with the same particle size are left in the same layer of sieve frame, so that the separation of different particle sizes can be quickly realized and the particle size composition of the material can be determined.

Wet Sieve Test Specifications

The below table shows the detailed data of different models of wet sieve for your reference.

NO.	Name	Unit	Parameter
1	frame diameter	mm	φ200
2	the number of layer	s	1~8
3	sieve size	mm	0.025-3
4	vibrating amplitube	mm	1~4
5	vibration frequency	n/min	1440
6	power supply	V;HZ;KW	220;50;0.12
7	outside dimension	LWH	350*350*(300+n*56)
8	machine weight	kg	36
9	time alarm	s	999
10	noise	db	Less than 50

When to Wet Sieve Test instead of dry sieving?

When dry sieving cannot produce an adequate degree of sample separation

When testing sample that contain little gravel-sized materials

When silt and clay removal is needed

How do you perform wet sieving?

Pre-testing

Mix sample materials with water until it becomes a suspension

Prepare a stack of sieves that are drenched

Place gaskets between each individual sieve

Place wet washing lid on the top of the sieves and wet washing receiver (with outlet) on the bottom

Establish the flow of water

Wet Sieve Test

1. Pour the material into the top screen frame.

2. Depending on the size of the sample, turn on the wet sieve test for 5-10 minutes.

3. Turn on the water supply.

4. Observe the liquid at the outlet, once the liquid is clear, turn off the water and shaker.

5. Collect the material retained on each sieve.

Wet Sieve Analysis Lab Report

Wet Sieve Test can determine the particle distribution of coarser and larger sizes of materials, and the distribution of finer particles using the hydrometer method, the following is an example of aggregate:

Opening sieve size(mm)	Mass retauned on each sieve(g)	Cumulative mass(g)	Percent finer*(%)
10	0	0	100
6.3	18.36	18.36	98.23
5	66.61	84.97	91.79
3.55	203.67	288.64	72.11
2	109.5	398.14	61.53
1.18	61.42	459.56	55.60
0.600	69.09	528.65	48.92
0.425	28.07	556.72	46.21
0.3	25.67	582.39	43.73
0.212	20.02	602.41	41.80
0.15	16.79	619.2	40.17
0.063	20.92	640.12	38.15
pan	394.88	1035	0.00

Wet Sieve Test vs Dry Sieve

Wet sieve test: It is used for particles above 75μm and below 4.75mm, and can separate fine and coarse particles of materials and water or other liquids. The samples contained very fine powders that easily agglomerated. Dry sieve tests can lead to clogged sieves, in cases where dry sieves are difficult to analyze, wet sieve tests are used.

Wet sieve test is suitable for samples containing high concentrations of fine particles or samples whose particles are not easily broken by mechanical shaking. For example, clays, such as clay or silt, can clump together to form larger particles that cannot pass through the mesh.

Dry sieve test: It can be used for particle size structure analysis and detection of granular and powdery materials with a diameter of 4.75mm and above under dry conditions.

Conditions for selecting dry sieve test: the material is dry and has good free flow, and only needs to be shaken or tapped to separate the material. Dry sieve test is commonly used in chemical, food and beverage, pharmaceutical and other industries.

Wet Sieve Test Mesh Aperture

Number	Mesh（mm）	Number	Mesh（mm）	Number	Mesh（mm）	Number	Mesh（mm）
2	13	26	0.71	90	0.16	260	0.06
3	6.5	28	0.63	100	0.154	280	0.055
4	5	30	0.6	110	0.14	300	0.054
5	4	32	0.55	115	0.13	320	0.048
6	3.2	36	0.5	120	0.125	325	0.045
7	2.8	40	0.45	130	0.111	350	0.041
8	2.5	45	0.4	140	0.105	360	0.4
9	2.2	50	0.355	150	0.1	400	0.0385
10	2	55	0.315	160	0.098	500	0.03
12	1.6	60	0.3	180	0.09
14	1.43	65	0.25	190	0.08
16	1.25	70	0.22	200	0.075
18	1	75	0.2	220	0.07
20	0.9	80	0.18	240	0.065
24	0.8	85	0.17	250	0.063