A new method for determining apparent density and void fraction in a tobacco column

The determination of physical properties, especially apparent density and void fraction, for bulk materials is an important subject to investigate. The Solution-Impregnation Method, with complicated experimental processes, is currently used to determine these properties for porous material. In this study, we developed a new method to determine these properties. The mathematical equations were derived from the Ergun equation. To evaluate our method, we used basic data for shredded tobacco leaf that was available in the literature. These data were substituted into our developed equations, and the results were compared with the properties obtained by the reference method. We found that apparent density and void fraction of porous material could be determined successfully by this new method. Even though this study was limited to shredded tobacco, we believe that our new method can extend to similar porous materials.