Preface to special issue: Image is everythingAuthor links open overlay panel--颗粒学报PARTICUOLOGY

Windows-Yule, C. R. K., Seville, J., Buist, K., Finotello, G., & Taghizadeh, K. (2025). Preface to special issue: Image is everything. Particuology, 101, 1-2. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.partic.2025.04.013

Preface to special issue: Image is everythingAuthor links open overlay panel

Christopher R.K. Windows-Yule^a*, Jonathan Seville^a, Kay Buist^b, Giulia Finotello^b, Kia Taghizadeh^c

a University of Birmingham, UK
b TU Eindhoven, the Netherlands
c University of Stuttgart, Germany

10.1016/j.partic.2025.04.013

Volume 101, June 2025, Pages 1-2

Available online 29 May 2025, Version of Record 29 May 2025.

E-mail: c.r.windows-yule@bham.ac.uk

Highlights

Abstract

As the regular readership of this Journal will likely know well, particulate media play crucial roles in both industry and nature. Understanding their dynamics and mechanics is crucial to improving the safety, efficacy, and efficiency of numerous processes spanning almost all industrial sectors, from food, to pharmaceuticals, to defence, to green energy, and beyond. It is also pivotal to the prediction and prevention of catastrophic natural phenomena such as earthquakes, avalanches, landslides, and even volcanic eruptions. However, unlike for classical media, there currently exist no universal theoretical models capable of accurately predicting the behaviours of particulate systems.

While, in the modern world, there is a significant and growing drive toward the use of numerical models and artificial intelligence-based techniques to explore, predict, and optimise the behaviours of particulate systems, even the most powerful of these methods is all but useless if it is not underpinned by, and rigorously validated against, suitable experimental data. As such, our ability to better study, understand, and ultimately improve these systems depends heavily on the existence of high-quality experimental methods for tracking and imaging particles and particulate systems – in other words, image is everything.

It is important to note that improving particle-handling systems is certainly no insignificant challenge. It is stated in the seminal Merrow Report (RAND Corp. Edward, 1986) that "Plants that process or produce solid materials … consistently have poorer performance than plants that process liquids and gases" and, in its 2000 follow-up, that "Operational problems associated with the processing of particles by the global chemical processing industry are responsible for billions of dollars in lost revenue and increased costs every year". In a modern economic landscape blighted by low productivity there is, therefore, a significant drive to improve our understanding of particulate media and the systems that handle and process them. More than this, however, the inefficiency of particle-handling processes is also a major source of greenhouse gas emissions. Milling/grinding processes alone are, according to the most recent estimate, responsible for approximately 4 % of all global electrical energy use, making them responsible for more than 500 million tonnes of CO₂ emissions per year. If we factor in also blending, coating, compaction, compression, drying, feeding, separating, sorting, and the myriad other processes beyond milling, it is clear that the environmental impact of particle-handling processes is enormous. Improving our understanding of particulate media is thus also key to global net zero goals, and our wider fight against climate change.

So, while the subject matter of this Special Issue may, on its surface, seem esoteric, it is no trivial matter.

This Special Issue derives its name, its focus, and much of its content from a Lorentz Workshop, organised and run by the issue's guest editors, which brought together world-leading experts in the imaging of particulate systems. The workshop included a diverse array of Applied Mathematicians, Chemical, Civil, and Mechanical Engineers, Earth Scientists, Physicists, and Industry specialists to provide not only expert insight into the state of the art in the field, but also a unique, interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral perspective – reflected also in the content of the Special Issue.

This collection of papers includes the introduction of truly novel, bleeding-edge imaging technologies and methods (see Feltner et al., 2025; Henry et al., 2025; Hossein et al., 2025; van der Sande et al., 2025), reviews and perspectives detailing the state-of-the-art in existing imaging technologies and the challenges faced by the field (see Clarke et al., 2025; Errigo et al., 2025; Windows-Yule et al., 2025), new applications of established technologies (see Romijn et al., 2025), the use of experimental imaging in the validation of numerical models (see Sykes et al., 2025), and complementary technologies which provide information that cannot be obtained using contemporary imaging methodologies alone (see Lupo et al., 2025; Thomas, 2025).

The Editors would like to express their gratitude to the contributors to this Special Issue and the Particuology Journal's Editorial staff, as well as to the participants in the original Image is Everything workshop, to the Lorentz Centre, and to the University of Birmingham's Institute of Advanced Studies, for providing the foundation for this body of work.

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