3.

Cement
Grinding
C E M E N T T E C H N O L O G Y N O T E S 2 0 0 4 36
3 . 1 I NT R ODUC T I ON
3 . 2 S A MP L I NG
3 . 3 C E ME NT F I NE NE S S
3 . 3 . 1 B L A I NE
3 . 3 . 2 P A RT I C L E S I Z E DI S T R I B U T I ON
3 . 3 . 3 I NF L U E NC E OF P S D
3 . 3 . 4 I NF L U E NC E OF C E ME NT C OMP OS I T I ON
3 . 4 C OMMI NUT I ON T HE ORY
contents chapter 4
C E M E N T T E C H N O L O G Y N O T E S 2 0 0 5 37
3.1 INTRODUCTION
The preceding section attempted to cover the main activities
involved in the cement manufacturing process. This covered
from raw materials through to clinker production. The final
stage is the production of cement using the clinker with gypsum
and other materials as necessary.
In cement grinding the overall objectives are:-
- to produce a cement of desired quality
- to produce a required quantity
- to achieve the above in the most economical way
Some aspects of the "desired quality" have already been
mentioned, but a wider examination of the cement performance
characteristics is dealt with in Section 7.
Since cement grinding is effectively the final stage before storage
and delivery to customer, any defects are not easily rectified. Off
specification cement is difficult to deal with, perhaps only by
careful blending from other mills or separate storage or by
returning to the process.
In the past the principal cost element of cement production was
always considered to be the primary fuel. Even just 20 years ago
(1980) the ratio between prime fuel cost and total electricity
cost was around 4 or 5:1 (UK). Today the trend is towards a
ratio that is nearer to 1:1 and even less in some plants where
prime fuel costs are approaching zero or even negative.
As electricity prices and cement fineness levels have increased,
the economics of using grinding aids have generally improved.
However an average price/unit or kWh for electricity has
become quite complex. Costs often include:-
- unit prices for a range of peak and off-peak times
- supply charges (linked to kVA)
- maximum demand
- rebates for reducing consumption at peak demand
- etc.
Cement plants use in the region of 100-150 kWh/tonne of
cement with typically some 40% of this in cement grinding (and
a similar amount in raw material grinding). However individual
mill kWh/tonne can vary quite considerably, for example as a
function of:-
- cement fineness
- clinker grindability or hardness
- nature/level of non-clinker components
- mill system design and operating efficiency
Some of the issues influencing mill performance are discussed in
Section 6.
In addition to the electricity costs there is also the plant repair
and maintenance costs which can often represent a further 30%
or more of other kWh costs.
The ball mill has been around a long time but, whereas the
1950's, 1960's and 1970's were the decades of kiln developments
like the suspension preheater and precalciner, the 1980's and the
1990's were the decades for mill system developments.
The 1980's saw significant progress and rapid application of
high efficiency separators and the introduction of the roll press.
The latter has led to the development of quite complex circuits
when compared to the early installation of pre-grinding
technology and include complete finish grinding systems
without the use of a ball mill. The 1990s also saw the
introduction of the horizontal roller mill (e.g. FCB Horomil).
There have also been interesting developments in pre-crushing
devices and the vertical spindle mill (roller mill) has found some
applications in cement and slag grinding.
In general, we shall see that cement milling is a very inefficient
process and the majority of energy consumed appears as heat.
Depending on the basis for "efficiency" the energy efficiency is
often quoted as less than 1%, if not closer to 0.2-0.3%.
3. CEMENT GRINDING
contents chapter 3 chapter 4
C E M E N T T E C H N O L O G Y N O T E S 2 0 0 5 38
3.2 SAMPLING
Cement grinding is generally a large-scale operation, as is the
rest of the process, and often the product and process need to be
characterised by the evaluation of relatively small samples. Thus
a great deal of importance can be placed on samples, often of
only a very small size (grams and even mg). Of course this
compares to sometimes 10's of tonnes/hour or, even worse,
1000's and 10,000's of tonnes of stocked materials.
Sampling is therefore a very important stage in assessing both
quality and process performance. However, obtaining so-called
representative samples is not easy, although there is a large amount
of scientific advice to assist us. Unfortunately everyone tends to
take "short-cuts" when sampling, as correct procedures would be
too time consuming, too expensive or impractical. Nevertheless we
should remember the objectives of taking samples, i.e.
- to collect a manageable size REPRESENTATIVE of the whole
- that ALL particles in the total (bulk) MUST have the same
probability of being included
- that ALL parts of the total MUST be EQUALLY accessible
To help in these objectives, there are two "golden rules":-
- sampling should be carried out preferably from a
moving stream
- a sample of the whole stream should be taken for
many periods rather than a part for the whole time
Considering the materials that are likely to be sampled, we have:-
- raw materials
- fuels
- slurry
- raw meal
- precipitator/filter dust
- kiln feed
- clinker
- gypsum
- cement
Referring to the golden rules, sampling from a clinker stockpile
is not to be recommended.
Materials that have variations in density, or more likely, in
particle size, and that are free flowing, will tend to result in the
greatest degree of segregation. In a stockpile this can be
obvious, but it can be equally important on a conveyor belt,
where the fines will tend to form a residual layer close to the
belt, leaving the coarser nodules near to the top.
Most of the interest in cement grinding will involve the
sampling of cement, although feed materials will sometimes also
need to be sampled.
For cement (and mill circuit streams), samples will usually be
taken from:-
- open conveyor belts
- chute (gravity flow)
- airslide
- pneumatic (dense and lean phase)
In some cases automatic samplers maybe in operation.
In general the golden rules can be observed when dealing with
conveyor belts, although attempts should be made to take a
sample across the belt and cover the height of material. For
cement, where particle sizes are relatively close, sampling is
easier than for clinker, raw materials or gypsum. However such
sampling will often generate relatively large samples (10-50kg)
which may then require further sub sampling. (see later).
Sampling from chutes depends on the actual design of chute in
question. Care should be taken in dealing with the whole cross
section. Segregation can often lead to variation in particle sizes
either across the width or depth or both of the material streams.
The airslide is a shallow inclined (5-15o) trough with a permeable
base through which air is injected to reduce the friction coefficient
(See Figure 40). This promotes flow under gravity over, sometimes,
quite long distances. It is not usually used for final transport of
cement, but is often used in grinding circuits. Sampling appears
simple, but again segregation across the width or height can cause
sampling bias. However there are not many plants where a sample
is not taken by "dipping a bucket" into the stream.
The majority of plants convey the final product in a dense phase
pneumatic transport system. For example using a screw pump
(e.g. F.K. pump) or blow tank. Sampling from the lines is not
easy and thus samples will often only be taken prior to the
pump or blow tank.
Lean phase systems are not so common, but are often found for
mill ventilation, where some "dust" from the mill circuit will be
transported to a filter or sometimes the separator. It is doubtful that
a representative sample can be easily acquired from such a system.
As in all stages of handling and reducing the size of samples,
care should be taken to maintain the representative nature of
the materials, i.e. the "golden rules" should be observed at all
times. For cohesive materials, adequate mixing before sub
sampling maybe sufficient to obtain reduced sample sizes.
However, for free flowing, easily segregated materials, some sort
of sampling procedure should be followed. This could involve
the use of riffle boxes or possibly "coning and quartering".
3. CEMENT GRINDING
Vent
Slope
Material
Inlet
Material
Outlet
Porous
Membrane
Fan
Figure 40. Airslide
Type
Width
mm
Depth
mm
Nominal Capacity
m
3
/hour
Nominal Capacity
Tonnes/hour
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
19
24
34
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
480
600
850
100
100
150
150
200
250
250
280
300
455
13
35
70
100
170
225
280
450
630
1500
12
33
66
95
160
210
260
425
600
1425
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C E M E N T T E C H N O L O G Y N O T E S 2 0 0 5 39
3.3 CEMENT FINENESS
3.3.1 Blaine
The fineness of cement is usually characterised by the specific
surface area (SSA), the units of which are either m
2
/kg or cm
2
/g.
This can be determined by an air permeability method (e.g.
BS4550 Lea and Nurse), in which dry air is passed continuously
at constant pressure through a compacted cylindrical bed of
cement. This is a constant flow-rate apparatus. The relationship
between the specific surface area and the measured resistance to
flow of the powder bed is given by the Carman-Kozeny
equation.
To measure SSA the particle density has also to be determined
usually by a liquid displacement method, or increasingly often,
by gas (e.g. helium) pycnometry. Typical material densities are:-
Clinker 3050 - 3250
"Gypsum" 2500 - 2600
Limestone 2700
Slag 2870 - 2930
Pfa (1) 2500 - 2600
Cement 2800 - 3250
However, the cement industry in general, tends to use air
permeability methods for determination of SSA based on
constant volume. In these (e.g. Rigden and Blaine), the time
required to pass a fixed volume of air through a bed of cement
of standard porosity is related to the SSA. However standard
samples of known SSA are required for equipment calibration.
It should be noted that the conversion of cm
2
/g to m
2
/kg is a
simple division by 10. However where the method for
determination is based on the constant flow-rate apparatus (e.g.
Lea and Nurse) the porosity of the sample bed has been
traditionally 0.475. In contrast the Blaine constant volume
method uses a bed porosity of 0.500. The relationship between
porosity and SSA is somewhat complex but as a guide the SSA
determined at 0.475 porosity will tend to be some 2-4% higher
than SSA determined at 0.500.
A further complication can also occur where the Blaine method
sometimes assumes a density of the cement to be 3150 kg/m
3
(e.g. ASTM).
(1) As-received density of pfa is lower and variable.
Density is increased during the grinding process.
Thus the SSA needs to be qualified by knowledge of the method
(i.e. porosity) and the particle density.
3.3.2 Particle Size Distribution
Although the SSA remains the most common means to describe
the cement fineness it does not always correlate well with
cement properties since the proportion of coarse particles
(residue) can vary significantly for a constant SSA.
The understanding of the influence of cement fineness on
cement properties can only be more fully understood when one
has a knowledge of the complete particle size distribution (PSD).
Residues, for example, at sizes of 30-90 microns are often
routinely determined using a test sieve. The most common of
these is the Alpine apparatus or air-jet sieve.
In many cases, where the cement composition is relatively
constant, the determination of SSA and residue effectively
describes 2 points on the PSD, since the SSA is principally a
function of the finer particles only (see later).
There are many techniques for the determination of PSD and a
number are used in the cement industry, including:-
Sedimentation methods
e.g. Andreasen Pipette
X-ray sedimentation (e.g. Micromeritics Sedigraph)
Optical sedimentation (e.g. light extinction)
Laser diffraction
e.g. Cilas
Malvern
Sympatek
Microtrac
From these, the complete PSD can be obtained and the results
can be presented in a number of ways, e.g. cumulative percent
passing particular sizes. Typical size ranges are 1-500 microns.
The resulting PSD can then be described mathematically if
desired, and the most popular formula used in the cement
industry is that of Rosin-Rammler, i.e.:
R = 100 [e-
(x/a)
n
]
where R = % residue
x = particle size
a,n = Rosin-Rammler constants
The equation is re-arranged to give: ln ln 100/R = n ln x - n ln a
A graphical plot thus provides a straight line of slope n and
intercept n ln a.
a = x when R = 100/e (= 36.79%)
The SSA can be estimated from the PSD (See TIS MS006) and
thus, as discussed previously, knowledge of the SSA, a residue
and the Rosin-Rammler equation, can effectively be used to
describe the PSD for cements of constant composition. Thus
where cement composition is constant the residue (e.g. at 45
microns) and the SSA can be used to provide an easy
comparison of changes in PSD. A table showing the estimated
slope of the Rosin-Rammler psd from the SSA and residue alone
is shown in TIS MS005. (It should be noted that the slope
obtained is based on the PSD obtained by X-ray sedimentation
and not laser diffraction).
In general terms, the values of n can be obtained from the
following equation:-
n = 1.88486 - 0.00161 (SSA) - 0.02328 (45 micron residue)
3. CEMENT GRINDING
contents chapter 3 chapter 4
C E M E N T T E C H N O L O G Y N O T E S 2 0 0 5 40
One useful application of the above concerns comparative mill
tests where there are unintentional variations in both the SSA
and the residue and where the intention is to assess whether
there have been changes in the PSD. Below is an example.
Condition 1 SSA = 365 m
2
/kg
45 micron = 8.5%
Condition 2 SSA = 340 m
2
/kg
45 micron = 12.3%
Question: has the PSD become narrower or wider? (i.e.
has the slope become higher or lower?)
Answer: in condition 1 we have an n value of 1.10
(using the above equation). In condition 2 we have an
n value of 1.05.
Thus the PSD has become wider. For similar PSD's, the
residue in condition 2 should have been around 10.2%.
Again, for constant composition, the slope of the Rosin-
Rammler PSD is linked to mill efficiencies, since a higher mill
circuit efficiency tends to produce a narrower PSD. The table
below provides a guide to the values of slope (n) for various
systems.
3.3.3 INFLUENCE OF PSD
Cement hydration can be considered to be a diffusion reaction,
which propagates on a uniform front on the cement particle
surface towards the centre. Thus for constant chemistry and
mineralogy the proportion of unhydrated coarse grains is an
important factor in limiting the strength development potential.
Thus, with knowledge of the equivalent depth of hydration at a
given age and the PSD, it is possible to estimate the degree of
hydration and equate this to strength development potential.
(See Figure 41). From this it is evident that it is the presence of
unhydrated coarse grain centres that have the greatest influence
on the degree of hydration. Therefore the potential for strength
development is increased as the cement PSD becomes narrower,
i.e. for high Rosin-Rammler PSD slopes and for lower residues
at constant SSA.
Figure 41. Relationship Between PSD and Hydration
3.3.4 INFLUENCE OF CEMENT COMPOSITION
Because of the large differences in the nature of materials used
in the grinding of cement (e.g. moisture hardness, abrasivity,
flowability), there can be large differences on the relationship
between mill kWh/tonne and SSA. Hence care is required when
assessing the comparison of SSA against kWh/tonne and SSA
against PSD (or residue).
For pure Portland cements the following is typical:
For a SSA of 350 m
2
/kg:
99% passing 90 microns
85-95% passing 45 microns
6-10% passing 2 microns
Gypsum SSA = 1000 - 1200 m
2
/kg
1% gypsum = 10 - 12 m
2
/kg
1% SO3 = 30 m
2
/kg
Material < 2 microns ~ 50% of total SSA
Gypsum ~ 15% of total SSA
No. of particles/gram ~ 50,000,000,000
In composite (blended) cements there can be a complex
influence on the SSA and PSD depending on the material
properties and their effect on the milling efficiency.
For slag, the grindability is similar to clinker, although
somewhat harder. Thus the most significant influence is on the
SSA versus kWh/tonne relationship rather than the PSD.
For fly ash, the grindability is also similar, although somewhat easier.
Thus at constant kWh/tonne both the SSA and residues are consistent
with a higher fineness. Overall, the PSD becomes narrower.
For limestone, the grindability can be very different to that of
clinker and variable from one limestone to another. Often, at
constant kWh/tonne, the SSA increases, whilst the residues also
increase. Thus the PSD becomes wider.
Natural pozzolans can cover the range either side of clinker and
thus appear harder or easier in grindability and produce either
wider or narrower PSD's.
3. CEMENT GRINDING
Mill System
PSD Slope
Laser Diff. X-ray Sed.
Open-circuit 0.8 - 0.9 0.9 - 1.1
Closed-circuit
(conventional
separators)
0.9 - 1.1 1.05 - 1.15
High efficiency
separation
> 1.1 > 1.20
% Hydration =
di
3
wi
di
3
- (di - 2h)
3
i = 1
i = n
If 2h > di then (di - 2h) = 0
Where
di = mean size of size fractions i (m)
wi = weight percent of size fraction i
n = number of size fractions
h = depth of hydration
Typical Depths of Hydration
1 day h ~ 0.5 microns
3 day h ~ 2 microns
7 day h ~ 3-4 microns
28 day h ~ 6-7 microns
Particle diameter
Depth of hydration
contents chapter 3 chapter 4
C E M E N T T E C H N O L O G Y N O T E S 2 0 0 5 41
3.4 COMMINUTION THEORY
Comminution is the term used to describe size reduction, and
concerns both the breakage of material as a result of its inherent
properties and the mechanism by which this is achieved.
The breakage of material involves:-
- the mechanism of fracture
- crack propagation
- molecular forces
- surface energy developed
However of more relevance are the results of breakage (i.e.
fineness or PSD) and the energy required.
There are a number of so-called laws covering this relationship,
the most referred to being that of Rittinger.
Rittinger, in 1867, postulated that the energy expended in
comminution is dependant on the new surface formed. This is
often referred to as the 1st Law of comminution and the energy
required is proportioned to L
2
. This was later modified by Kick
in that the energy was considered in relation to the volume, i.e.
L
3
(so-called 2nd Law). Bond, based on much practical
experimentation postulated a 3rd Law, which was essentially an
average of Rittinger and Kick where the energy was
proportional to L
2.5
.
For completeness, a 4th Law was attributed to Charles, in
which the concept of PSD was introduced.
In general, workers have often treated the laws as:-
1st Law applicable to fine grinding
2nd Law applicable to crushing
3rd Law as an empirical relationship
4th Law applicable to research projects
Thus for cement grinding, Rittinger's Law has remained the
most often referenced, where we can discuss a linear
relationship between grinding kWh/tonne and cement SSA.
(Further discussion is given in Section 10). Deviations from the
linear relationship are then an important part of the process of
evaluating grinding performance.
A more recent development, has been the application of the
concept of breakage parameters to describe the comminution
process. Austin and his co-workers have contributed most in
this area.
The first of these parameters is the "Selection Function", which
in effect describes the probability of breakage in unit time of
grinding. The probability will depend on:-
- the probability that the energy available is greater
than the breaking energy of a given particle
- the probability that the energy greater than the
particle's breaking energy is applied to the particle.
(See Figure 42)
Figure 42. Selection Function
The second parameter, the "Breakage Distribution Function"
describes the size distribution of the product from breakage.
(See Figure 43).
Knowledge of these two parameters allows the percentage of
particles in given size ranges to be determined, i.e. the rate of
change of particles of a given size is a function of the rate of
addition of particles from breakage of larger sizes less the rate
of breakage out of the given size into smaller sizes. A schematic
of this is shown in Figure 44.
The breakage distribution function is found to be dependent on
the material characteristics and the mill type (i.e. ball mill, roller
mill or roll press).
Figure 43. Breakage Function
3. CEMENT GRINDING
Sj = Rate of Grinding of Particles of Size j
( = prbability of Breakage in Unit Time of Grinding)
Sj = P1* P2* P3 Where
P1 = Probability that Q > Q'
P2 = Probabilty that Breaking Energy of Particle _ < Q'
P3 = Probability that Energy Q' is applied to the particle
Energy Q
j
i = j-1
Bij = % of Particles resulting from breakage of size j which arrives
in size i
Energy Q
j
j
j
j
j
contents chapter 3 chapter 4
C E M E N T T E C H N O L O G Y N O T E S 2 0 0 5 42
The selection function, or rate of breakage, is however
dependant on the majority of mill parameters, such as:-
- particle size
- ball size
- mill diameter
- volume loading
- powder loading
- mill speed
- material characteristics
For a complete understanding of the grinding process it is also
necessary to know the time of grinding, i.e. the residence time
or, more precisely, the distribution of residence times. This is
discussed in more detail in Sections 4 and 6.
Figure 44. Selection and Breakage Functions.
3. CEMENT GRINDING
Sj B(i,j) Wj - S(i) W(i)
dt
=
d W(i)
j = i to 1
(i > j)
1
-
Rate of addition of
ground material into size i
from all larger sizes
Rate of loss of
material into
finer sizes
Rate of change of
fraction of material
in size i
=
1 3 2 4
contents chapter 3 chapter 4