Friabilidad

Friabilidad, or friability, is the tendency of a material to crumble or break into smaller particles under mechanical stress. It reflects the material's mechanical integrity and is used across disciplines to gauge durability, handling properties and processing behavior.

In geology and soil science, friabilidad describes how readily rocks or soils crumble when subjected to stress. Materials with high friabilidad break easily and weather to finer particles, while those with low friability are more resistant to fracturing. Friability affects erosion, sediment transport and soil tillage.

In mining and mineral processing, ore friability influences energy requirements for crushing and grinding. Friable ores fracture more readily, reducing grinding power and equipment wear. Friability is usually assessed with laboratory tests that simulate handling or milling, yielding size distributions or numerical indices.

In pharmaceuticals, friability is evaluated with a friabilator to assess tablet durability during handling and packaging. Tablets are tumbled for a fixed number of minutes, then weighed to determine weight loss. A common passing criterion is a weight loss of less than about 1%, though the exact standard varies.

Factors affecting friability include moisture content, particle size distribution, mineralogy or cementing agents, porosity and the presence of clays or binders. Because friability is context dependent, a material may be friable under some conditions and not under others.

Friability is a practical indicator of durability and stability in processing and transport, but it should be used alongside other mechanical tests to obtain a complete performance profile.