3. Physical characteristics of bulk fillings

3.1 General

It is conventional but somewhat abusive to speak of the characteristics of a packing without specifying the diameter of the column in which they were determined, as well as the loading conditions.

The conditions under which the packing is placed (dry or in a water-filled column, with or without settling of the load) significantly modify the value of the void volume fraction, as shown by Lobo et al. [2] the value of the void volume fraction and the packing factor F, the significance of which is explained in paragraph