Temperature generated from crushing metal into powder

[DragonPetter]

Main Question or Discussion Point

Say I have a brittle metal that I start smashing up with a hammer to crush it into a powder. How do I know how much the material's temperature will rise from this if I assume an average repetitive force crushing onto 5 grams of the material?

 

[Astronuc]

One could estimate the surface area of the powder and figure out the energy require to break the bonds to create the surface. One would then have to make an assumption on the energy losses during the process. Or calcuate the energy per impact and the number of impacts to create the powder, and relate to temperature through the heat capacity accounting for heat loss.

Certainly it's less than the melting temperature.

As far as I know, powders are formed from melts with rapid solidification techniques.