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MILLING
da Escola
Politcnica,
Orientador:
Rio de Janeiro
EFFECT OF OPERACIONAL VARIABLES ON BALL MILLING
Fevereiro de 2015
ii
iii
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank the following persons for helping me during my undergraduate
degree.
My family, Marco, Rachel, Andr, Brenno, Ignez and Nylson, for their
encouragement, advice and friendship throughout all my life.
My girlfriend Rita, for her support and patience during these last months and
also for her loving care.
Professor Malcolm Powell and Research Fellow Dr. Mohsen Yahyaei, from
JKMRC/UQ, for their enduring advice and invaluable encouragement.
Pedra Sul Minerao Ltda, for providing the samples for the experimental
work.
CNPq (Brazilian Research Agency), for providing financial support during the
Science without Borders Program.
And every other person without whom this project would not be possible.
vi
Orientador:
moinho. Ainda assim, para que os resultados simulados atinjam total confiabilidade
ainda necessrio um profundo entendimento sobre qual a real contribuio de
finos de minrio tanto no movimento da carga quanto na potncia.
O modelo mecanicista da UFRJ mostrou excelente concordncia com dados
experimentais relacionados quebra de partculas grossas de minrio quando
corpos moedores de 40 mm foram utilizados. Contudo, o prprio modelo ou os
parmetros especficos relacionados ao minrio ainda necessitam de ajustes para
que seja possvel fazer predies da cominuio de finos.
viii
Advisors:
ix
The UFRJ mechanistic model showed excellent agreement with experimental data
regarding the breakage of coarse particles when steel balls of 40 mm were used.
Nonetheless, either the model itself or the specific parameters used, which are
related to the ore, still needs adjustments, which aim at improving the prediction on
the breakage of intermediate and fine particles.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments ....................................................................................................... vi
List of Figures ........................................................................................................... xiii
List of Tables ............................................................................................................ xvii
Nomenclature ........................................................................................................... xviii
1.
Introduction ........................................................................................................... 1
2.
Objective ............................................................................................................... 4
3.
Comminution .................................................................................................. 5
3.2.
3.2.1.
3.3.
3.4.
Grinding ........................................................................................................ 12
3.4.1.
3.5.
4.
3.5.1.
3.5.2.
Batch grinding............................................................................................... 25
4.1.1.
Measurements ........................................................................................... 28
4.1.1.1.
4.1.2.
4.1.3.
Experimental method................................................................................. 34
4.1.4.
4.2.
5.
Batch grinding............................................................................................... 41
5.1.1.
Power ........................................................................................................ 41
5.1.2.
5.1.3.
5.1.4.
5.2.
5.2.1.
Simulation ..................................................................................................... 56
Power calculated from DEM simulations ................................................... 56
xi
5.3.
5.3.1.
5.3.2.
6.
Conclusions ........................................................................................................ 65
7.
8.
References ......................................................................................................... 68
9.
xii
List of Figures
Figure 3-1: Rittinger, Kick and Bond applicability regions. Adapted from Hukki (1962).
.............................................................................................................................. 8
Figure 3-2: Comminution energy efficiency calculated using ratio between operating
and Bond work indices: unfilled data points from Morrell (2004) and filled points
from Ballantyne et al. (2014)............................................................................... 10
Figure 3-3: Different types of stress application mechanisms inside comminution
equipment. Bigger balls circles grinding media and smaller ones representing
ore particle. Adapted from Chieregati (2001)...................................................... 11
Figure 3-4: a) Shattering process; b) Fracture by cleavage. Adapted from King
(2001). ................................................................................................................ 11
Figure 3-5: Surface fragmentation (chipping and abrasion). Adapted from King
(2001). ................................................................................................................ 12
Figure 3-6: Examples of movement of the media inside a ball mill simulated using
DEM: centrifuge (left), cataract (middle) and cascade (right). ............................ 13
Figure 3-7: Influence of % of critical speed (top) and % of mill filling (bottom) on
power consumption. Gray area indicates the usual range used in the industry.
Adapted from Kelly and Spottiswood (1982). ..................................................... 15
Figure 3-8: Illustration of the torque required to turn a mill. Adapted from King (2001).
............................................................................................................................ 16
Figure 3-9: Schematic illustration of a tumbling mill................................................... 17
Figure 3-11: Schematic diagram of the collision event of the mechanistic model
(Tavares and Carvalho, 2009). ........................................................................... 23
Figure 3-12: Schematic illustration of the input information for the mechanistic model
(Tavares, 2015). ................................................................................................. 24
Figure 4-1: Laboratory ball mill settings. .................................................................... 28
Figure 4-2: 3-D model of the 30x30 cm laboratory ball mill (left) and the lifter profile
(right). ................................................................................................................. 29
Figure 4-3: Typical data extracted from the torque sensor. ....................................... 29
xiii
Figure 4-4: Mill design 1 (bigger lifters) and mill design 2 (smaller lifters). ................ 30
Figure 4-5: Ro-tap sieving equipment. ..................................................................... 32
Figure 4-6: Sympatec equipment installed at LTM facilities. .................................... 33
Figure 4-7: Distributions resulted from Sympatec software program. ...................... 34
Figure 4-8: Experimental procedure. ......................................................................... 35
Figure 4-9: Different size analysis techniques for 1 minute grinding depending on the
size interval of the particles. ............................................................................... 35
Figure 4-10: Size analyses of duplicate cases using different ball size: 15 mm (top
left), 25 mm (top right), 40 mm (bottom left) and distribution (bottom right). ...... 36
Figure 4-11: Breakage rate of 8 mm size class (left) and variation of power with time
(right) of duplicate tests. ..................................................................................... 37
Figure 4-12: Snapshot of EDEM simulation where balls are colored by their kinetic
velocity (J=30%, c=75% and db=25 mm). ........................................................ 39
Figure 4-13: Power draw of the ball mill (J=30%, c=75% and db=25 mm). ............. 40
Figure 4-14: Velocity profile (left) and particle frequency (right), (J=30%, c=75% and
db=25 mm). ......................................................................................................... 40
Figure 5-1: Variation of power with time for tests with different ball sizes: Dry (left)
and wet (right). (J=30%, c=75% and U=100%). ............................................... 42
Figure 5-2: Effect of mill filling on power consumption (c=75% and U=100%). ....... 43
Figure 5-3: Variation of power with grinding time for different percentage of the
critical speed (J=30%, U=100% and db=25 mm). ............................................... 44
Figure 5-4: Variation of power with percentage of critical speed for different powder
fillings (J=30%, c=75% and db=25 mm). .......................................................... 45
Figure 5-5: Effect of 100% powder filling on power for different mill filling
percentages. Ball size: 15 mm (left) and 40 mm (right). ..................................... 45
Figure 5-6: Size analyzes of each batch grinding step (J=30%, U=100% and
c=75%). Top-left: db=15 mm log-log scale; bottom-left: db=15 mm semi-log
xiv
xv
Figure 5-20: Particle frequency profiles extracted from LTMAnalyst showing different
charge movement caused by different ball sizes: 15 mm (left), 25 mm (middle)
and 40 mm (right). .............................................................................................. 59
Figure 5-21: Particle frequency profiles extracted from LTMAnalyst showing different
charge movement behavior obtained from different mill designs running at same
operational conditions: Mill design 1 (left) and Mill design 2 (right) (J=30%, db=25
mm and c=75%). .............................................................................................. 59
Figure 5-22: UFRJ mechanistic model predictions for different mill filling: J=30% (left)
and J=40% (right). (U=100%, db=40 mm and c=75%). .................................... 61
Figure 5-23: UFRJ mechanistic model predictions for smaller ball sizes: db=15 mm
(left) and db=25 mm (right). (U=100%, J=30% and c=75%). ............................ 61
Figure 5-24: Comparison between disappearance of top size class from simulation
and experimental data. ....................................................................................... 62
Figure 5-25: Comparison of the charge movement: experimental (left), simulation
using EDEM and post-processing using LTM Analyst (J=30%, c=75% , db=25
mm and for the experimental case, U=100%). .................................................. 63
Figure 5-26: Power consumption for different percentage of mill filling (db=25 mm,
c=75% and experimental data with U=100%). ................................................. 64
Figure 5-27: Comparison between simulated and experimental power consumption
(J=30%, db=25 mm and U=100%). ..................................................................... 64
Figure 7-1: Particle frequency extracted from LTM Analyst showing charge
movement caused by different designs and rotational speeds: Mil design 1 (left)
with c=50% and Mill design 2 (right) with c=75% (J=30% and db=25 mm). ... 67
Figure 9-1: Power comparison (experimental x center of gravity x energy loss) for
different mill filling percentages and grinding media size (c=75%). ................. 72
xvi
List of Tables
Table 4-1: Experimental details (grinding media only). .............................................. 26
Table 4-2: Standard ball size distribution based on that from the Bond Wi test
(equivalent to 20% of the mill filling). .................................................................. 26
Table 4-3: Relationship between mill filling and total mass of balls. .......................... 26
Table 4-4: Experimental details (dry grinding) ........................................................... 27
Table 4-5: Experimental details (wet grinding)........................................................... 28
Table 4-6: Size intervals selected for the experimental analyses. ............................. 31
Table 4-7: Batch grinding time intervals for tests including ore powder..................... 34
Table 4-9: Material parameters used for EDEM simulations (Dem Solutions Ltd.).... 38
Table 4-10: Contact parameters for steel-steel surfaces (middle) and contact
parameters to compensate the existence of ore particles. ................................. 38
Table 5-1: Fines generated and grindability from dry tests using 25 mm balls and
30% of mill filling. ................................................................................................ 52
Table 5-2: Fines generated and grindability from all experimental tests: dry grinding
(left) and wet grinding (right). .............................................................................. 53
xvii
Nomenclature
AG
Autogenous grinding
CFD
CNPq
COPPE
DEM
FEM
JKMRC
LTM
SAG
Semi-autogenous grinding
SPH
Smoothed-particles Hydrodynamics
SSE
UFRJ
UQ
xviii
1. Introduction
Particle size reduction operations, called comminution, are extremely important to
achieve a concentrated high-grade product. Nowadays, the mineral industry is facing
some of its most challenging obstacles:
Ore quality is gradually getting worse. In other words, easy extraction of high
concentration resources is becoming limited. As ore grades continue to decline,
the cost to produce mineral commodities rises.
Mineral processing operations are making great effort to keep up with the same
quality productivity as ore quality decreases.
These challenges require a full understanding of all mineral processing operations and
equipment so that process optimization becomes a viable solution.
Comminution is known as an energy intensive process. In fact, many researches tried
to estimate the energy consumption due to comminution operations. Schnert (1986)
estimated that comminution is responsible for between 2 and 3% of the energy
produced in the world. In his recent work, Napier-Munn (2014) indicated that this
estimation is reduced to 1.8%. He also showed impressive numbers related to energy
consumption from several mineral beneficiation industries: approximate calculations
indicate cement grinding is responsible for 185 billion kWh of energy consumption
whilst coal stone crushing indicates consumption of 20 billion kWh. Wills (1997)
indicated that comminution could be responsible for 70% of mineral beneficiation costs.
Among all comminution steps, grinding in tumbling mills is known to be energy
inefficient. The most commonly used tumbling mill in the industry is the ball mill, which
is named after its grinding media, steel balls. Rotational movement provides the rise of
the charge inside the mill and subsequent impact, resulting in particle breakage. They
are able to reduce size particles on a relatively wide range of particle sizes, hence their
wide applicability in the industry and research laboratories.
Many distinct methodologies have been proposed to assess and predict ball mill
performance and energy requirement, being the one based on the Bond work index
(BWi) the most popular. In order to optimize ball milling it is important to first properly
understand the effect of operational variables on grinding. Mill filling, powder filling, mill
rotational speed and size of the grinding media are some of the most important
operational variables of a ball mill. Recently, mechanistic approaches found their way
into comminution modeling for being able to describe detailed relationships between
1
physical environment inside the mill and the product discharged from the mill,
overcoming limitations of previous models (Tavares and Carvalho, 2009). To achieve
this level of detail, mechanistic models used the discrete element method (DEM) to
describe the mechanical environment of the mill (Mishra and Rajamani, 1992,
Weerasekara et al., 2013).
Combined analyses between batch experimental grinding tests and modeling
approaches may be the best path for comminution processes optimization. The
validation of these models will lead to a powerful and efficient tool for breakage
prediction, new equipment design and energy consumption estimation.
The impressive usability and the energy inefficiency associated to ball mills over the
years are the motivational foundations of this work. The possibility of giving a step
further on understanding this complex yet thrilling process enhances the motivation to
improve the efficiency of this traditional and solid equipment by providing substantial
resources to future optimization studies.
A concise discussion of the contents of each chapter follows.
CHAPTER 2 indicates the objectives of this work in a clear form.
CHAPTER 3 reviews some aspects of comminution regarding mineral liberation and
particle breakage mechanisms, ball milling operations, power draw calculation methods
and the advances in comminution modeling. A description of the UFRJ mechanistic
model and information about the discrete element method (DEM) can also be found in
this chapter.
CHAPTER 4 details the experimental methods presented in this work. It indicates the
material used for batch grinding tests and the software used for the simulations.
Information regarding the methodology used for power measurements and size
distribution analyses are presented as well as the tool used for simulation post
processing.
CHAPTER 5 discusses the influence of operational variables such as grinding media
size, mill filling, percentage of the critical speed, powder filling and solids percentage
on power consumption and on particle size distributions. A detailed comparison
between experimental and simulation data is presented indicating the possible
limitations of the techniques used.
CHAPTER 6 summarizes the results and concludes the work. It shows which areas are
established and which still need further understanding.
CHAPTER 7 proposes extra tests, which aim at gaining deeper insights into the effect
of mill design and powder filling on ball milling.
2. Objective
The aim of this work is to evaluate the effect of operational variables on ball mills
through batch grinding and simulation tools, providing resources to improve
mechanistic modeling approaches of tumbling mills.
3.1. Comminution
In mineral processing, valuable ore minerals need to be liberated from the gangue in
order to achieve a product with desirable grade after concentration processes. The
release of these valuable minerals is obtained through comminution.
Comminution is the term used for size reduction due to the application of energy. It
consists of three steps: rock blasting, crushing and grinding. These processes demand
high-energy consumption and it is estimated that around 2% of the global electricity
generated is spent during comminution (Schnert, 1986, Fuerstenau and Abouzeid,
2002, Napier-Munn, 2014). In fact, at an ore beneficiation plant, comminution can be
responsible for up to 70% of production costs, either due to power consumption or
equipment degradation and consumption of wear parts (Wills, 1997).
Crushing stages are responsible for a significant size reduction and can be carried out
in three or four stages. Primary crushing feed stream can have particle sizes as coarse
as 1000 mm and the last crushing stage can deliver particles sizing 10 mm or even
smaller. After being crushed, the material go to grinding circuits resulting in a reduced
particle sizes of hundreds or a few micrometers. Particle size distribution of the product
must be well controlled aiming at maximizing the efficiency of further concentration
stages. Tumbling mills are grinding equipment widely used in mineral processing. The
most used tumbling mills are: ball, autogenous (AG), semi-autogenous (SAG) and rod.
Despite their low energy efficiency, ball mills are robust equipment extensively used in
grinding circuits, probably due to the fact they operate from laboratory to industrial
scale. They are also able to process a large scale of particle size (Napier-Munn et al.,
1996). The grinding media inside ball mills, steel balls, are elevated among the charge
5
and then impacted against the particles by centrifugal and gravity forces. The collisions
promote breakage due to body or surface breakage (Carvalho, 2014).
!!
!!
(3-1)
where:
is the additional energy required to produce a size reduction dx;
is the particle size;
and are ore constants.
The greatest challenge of quantifying grinding energy is the fact that the mill absorbs
most of the energy applied and only a small percentage is directed to actual particle
fragmentation. Over the history, semi-empirical energy-size reduction relationships
were proposed by Rittinger, Kick, and Bond, known as comminution laws.
indicates that the energy consumption is proportional to the increase in surface area
generated by crushing or grinding processes. It is known that surface area is inversely
proportional to particle size, resulting in the following equation:
=
!
!!
!
!!
(3-2)
that the energy consumed is proportional to the volume reduction of the particles
involved and it can be given by:
!!
(3-3)
!!
These two laws brought forth an extensively controversy between Rittingers and Kicks
followers. In fact, Rittingers approach is extremely simplified since it assumes that all
energy is transferred to the charge and it does not consider deformations that might
happen prior to the breakage event (Bond, 1985). On the other hand, although Kicks
theory showed to be adequate for homogeneous materials, it also miscalculates the
actual energy required in practice.
assumes that the energy consumed to reduce particle size is proportional to the square
root of the new area produced and inversely proportional to particle size, known as:
=
!
!!
(3-4)
!!
where is the Work Index (), which was proposed by Bond and it is determined
experimentally in the laboratory. is the energy required, in kWh/t, to reduce 1 tonne
from a large size (infinite) to a point where 80% of the material passes the 100 microns
sieve. This point is commonly referenced as d80:
=
!
!""
0 => = 10
(3-5)
= 10
!
!
!!"
!
!
!!"
(3-6)
Bonds comminution law can be applied for crushers, rod and ball mills. Consequently,
the is different depending on the equipment and it must be measured separately.
The standard Bonds laboratory test to determine was designed to produce an
index that would correctly predict the power required by a test with specified
parameters. Thus, in order to apply Bonds equation to industrial mills, which differ from
the standard meant by Fred Bond, a series of efficiency factors should be taken into
consideration (King, 2001).
Figure 3-1: Rittinger, Kick and Bond applicability regions. Adapted from Hukki (1962).
It was identified that Kicks relation is more appropriate for crushing processes whilst
Rittingers can be related to fine grinding. Although Bonds method also shows a limited
applicability region, it is applicable for particle size intervals that are regularly used in
grinding operations.
Figure 3-2: Comminution energy efficiency calculated using ratio between operating and Bond
work indices: unfilled data points from Morrell (2004) and filled points from Ballantyne et al. (2014).
10
Figure 3-3: Different types of stress application mechanisms inside comminution equipment.
Bigger balls circles grinding media and smaller ones representing ore particle. Adapted from
Chieregati (2001).
Figure 3-4: a) Shattering process; b) Fracture by cleavage. Adapted from King (2001).
11
Breakage of particles may be, additionally, classified into two distinct modes: body
breakage and surface breakage. Surface fragmentation occurs when the energy
applied is not high enough to cause body breakage. This happens, for instance,
frequently inside autogenous mills where coarse particles act as grinding media.
Surface fragmentation results in finer products and does not cause significant change
in parent particle volume and size (King, 2001). It occurs via two mechanisms: chipping
and abrasive wear (Francioli et al., 2014). Chipping happens when there is formation of
subsurface lateral cracks (Hutchings, 1993), resulting in the chipping off of a small
volume of the particle. Abrasion, in which almost no surface damage can be seen, is
caused by applications of either low energy stresses or shear stresses generated by
the rolling or sliding of the particles against each other or another rougher surface.
Figure 3-5: Surface fragmentation (chipping and abrasion). Adapted from King (2001).
3.4. Grinding
Grinding processes of tumbling mills consist on the rotation of the mill at the horizontal
axis. Usually, mills are filled partially with grinding media, ore particles and sometimes
water. The movement of the media inside the mill can be indicated by the energy
applied and the mill geometry (liner, lifters and mill diameter). Lifters prevent slipping of
the charge in the mill reducing the amount of energy wasted during the grinding
process and improve the breakage mechanisms by enhancing the number of collisions.
The dimensions of the lifters have great influence in charge motion and grinding
efficiency.
12
The rotation speed that results in the movement of the grinding media adjacent to mill
shell during the entire mill rotation is called critical speed. Ball mills can operate in two
distinct regimes depending on the rotation speed: cascade and cataract, as illustrated
in Figure 3-6. Cascade motion is more likely to result in breakage through attrition
whereas cataract would favor collisions and, thus, body breakage.
Figure 3-6: Examples of movement of the media inside a ball mill simulated using DEM: centrifuge
(left), cataract (middle) and cascade (right).
!".!
!! !!!
(3-7)
where ! is the mill internal diameter and ! is the diameter of the grinding media
particles, both in meters. Very commonly, the speed a mill is operated is called fraction
of critical speed, ! . Industrial milling usually work between 65-82% of the critical
speed, but sometimes values as high as 90% or lower than 65% are used (King, 2001).
Mill filling is the percentage of the mill volume occupied by the grinding media and the
interstices between them. This operational variable can be written as,
Mill filling: =
!!"
!! !!!"
(3-8)
where !" is the volume of the grinding media inside the mill and ! is the volume of
the mill. ! is the fractional volume of the interstices between the grinding media,
usually ! has a value of 0.4 (Austin and Concha, 1994). The charge inside a mill can
be given by,
Charge: ! =
!!"
!! !!!"
(3-9)
13
!!
!! !
(3-10)
In addition, grinding processes can be classified as dry or wet, when water is part of
the charge inside a mill. Although 30% less energy is used in wet grinding processes,
the costs related to drying may compensate the final expense. Moreover, the wear of
grinding media and grinding mills are typically 3 to 5 times greater during wet grinding
(Tavares, 2009b).
14
Figure 3-7: Influence of % of critical speed (top) and % of mill filling (bottom) on power
consumption. Gray area indicates the usual range used in the industry. Adapted from Kelly and
Spottiswood (1982).
The variation of mill filling can also influence power consumption. More energy is
needed when there is an increase of the mass inside the mill. On the other hand, the
variation of the center of mass as the percentage of mill filling changes also plays a
major role. For greater mill fillings the center of mass is dislocated towards the mill
center, reducing energy consumption.
15
(3-11)
where ! is the mass of the charge inside the mill, is the gravitational force, ! is the
distance from the center of gravity to the mill center and ! is the torque required to
overcome friction, as shown in See Figure 3-8.
Figure 3-8: Illustration of the torque required to turn a mill. Adapted from King (2001).
(3-12)
(3-13)
16
No-load power is the power consumed by an empty mill and it accounts for frictional
and mechanical losses. According to Morrell (1996), it can be calculated by:
!.!"
No load power = 1.68!
! (0.667! + )
!.!"
(3-14)
where ! and are physical characteristics presented in Figure 3-9. In Equation (314), ! is the mean length of the conical ends as it is shown below:
! =
!! !!
(3-15)
(3-16)
where ! is the effective length of a mill, ! is the specific gravity of the charge, is a
parameter related to the fractional mill filling and is another parameter related to the
percentage of critical rotation speed. Depending on the type of discharge, assumes a
specific value. Austin (1990) and Morrell (1996) suggested different values of for
each condition. Moreover, they indicated different approach for calculations of ! ,
and .
Austins approach:
! = +
!.!"#
!!
!! (!!!.!"!! ) !! !!
!!
= ! (1 1.03! )
!.!"# !.!
!.!!!!
!.!"# !!.!
!.!!!!
(3-17)
(3-18)
17
= ! 1
!.!
! !!!"!!
Morrells approach:
! = + 2.28! (1 ! )
=
(3-19)
!!
!
!! (!!!! )
!!
(3-20)
(3-21)
(3-22)
where ! is the total fractional mill filling, which includes the percentage of the mill
volume occupied by the grinding media and the ore.
In Equation (3.21), can be calculated by:
= 2(2.986! 2.213!! 0.4927)
(3-23)
and,
!"# = 0.954 0.135!
(3-24)
According to King (2001) and Tavares (2009a), both approaches deliver approximately
the same estimates of net power consumed by tumbling mills.
18
Breakage event
Operational
Feed
conditions
Product
Figure 3-10: Black box models. Adapted from Napier-Munn et al. (1996).
Through an engineering tool, called the population balance model, researchers were
able to describe successfully comminution processes in tumbling mills (Austin et al.,
1984). The population balance model can be simplified as a mass balance over a
range of sizes through calculations of breakage rates and appearance functions,
classification and transport in mills.
The size-discretized model when applied for batch grinding can be described by Austin
et al. (1984):
!!! (!)
!"
= ! ! +
!!!
!!! !" !
(3-25)
where ! is the mass fraction of particles in size class i, s is the selection function and
b is the breakage function. The selection function represents the specific breakage rate
depending on the size of the particle and the breakage function describes the breakage
behavior of a particle after being fractured and its fragments are distributed among
smaller size classes. Coarser particles are usually classified in size class 1, whilst finer
particles are classified as N. The grinding process in size class i is related to the
disappearance of particles in this very size class and the appearance of smaller
particles coming from coarser classes.
The coarser size interval has the advantage of having only the disappearance function
and Equation (3.25) can then be simplified as:
!!! (!)
!"
= ! !
(3-26)
19
where ! is the breakage rate in size class 1 (coarsest class). This simplification allows
the assumption of identifying grinding process as being a first order kinetic process. As
! does not vary with time, it can be estimated by:
log
!! (!)
!! (!)
!! !
!.!
(3-27)
Examples of specific breakage rate for the first size class can be found further in this
work (Figure 4-11).
For decades, the traditional population balance model, which in the case of the batch
grinding may be described by Equation 3.25, has been used as a basis for modeling
mills and researchers added their individual semi-empirical relationships contributions
to fit the technique. However, the model itself encounters great difficulty to simulate the
process under different conditions from those used to fit its parameters (Carvalho and
Tavares, 2013). In addition, another limitation lies in its inherent incapacity to describe
how operating and design variables used in milling influence size reduction.
Weerasekara et al. (2013) also commented on the incapacity of the traditional
population balance model, given that it is a phenomenological model, of predicting the
performance of new or novel equipment.
In order to overcome the limitations of the traditional population balance model, new
formulations, known as mechanistic models, were proposed. Those types of models
are very complex and they require great computational capacity. They can describe
detailed relationships between physical conditions inside the mill and the product.
Tavares and Carvalho (2009) and Tavares and Carvalho (2010) proposed a
mechanistic model that maintains mass balancing capabilities of the population
balance model and also presents a deeper insight of the effect of operating and design
variables. Their model is able to decouple material from mill contributions in the
process. In order to achieve this level of detail, the Discrete Element Method is used to
describe the mechanical environment of the mill.
materials are used, such as rock and powder mechanics. Today, DEM technique has
proved to be a powerful tool for the development of mechanistic modeling in
comminution. Some of the characteristics of DEM are:
Carvalho (2014) explains the calculation algorithm of the DEM in three stages. A list of
interactions regarding the particle neighborhood is periodically built through a search
mesh. The collision forces are also evaluated by the use of the contact model and,
finally, the forces involved on each particle are summed followed by the integration of
motion equations, which are related to mass, inertia momentum of the particle, and its
linear and angular velocities.
DEM simulations of tumbling mills started as a two dimensions technique. Millsoft is
an example of 2-D software dedicated to tumbling mills (Mishra and Rajamani, 1992).
3-D tools, such as EDEM, came out with the advances of computational power.
Recently, DEM found its way on coupling to other simulation techniques, for instance:
DEM-FEM (finite element method), DEM-CFD (computational fluid dynamics) and
DEM-SPH (smoothed particles hydrodynamics) (Bagherzadeh Kh et al., 2011, Chu et
al., 2009). The use of these coupled techniques allow the simulations of different
environments in distinct applications such as particle breakage, crack propagation and
motion and slurry discharge from a mill. The power consumption calculated through
DEM regarding charge motion does not include the effect of slurry movement in the
charge or the mechanical losses in the motor or couplings. Cleary (2001) stated that
power measures taken from real mills will be greater than the power obtained from
DEM simulations. The use of DEM for ball, AG and SAG mills simulations can provide
prediction of power consumption with an error of less than 10%. In addition, it is able to
predict the movement of the charge inside the mill and it also gives important
information on lifters and liners wear and degradation (Mishra, 2003).
Many researchers directed their work into validating DEM simulations by comparing
simulated results with experimental data. Cleary and Hoyer (2000) used a centrifugal
mill and changed fill levels with very close agreement in terms of power prediction.
21
22
accumulation model. It considers that particle properties change with time due to both
low-energy and high-energy impacts. As stated by Carvalho (2014), the model has
inputs from fundamental ore breakage properties and it uses information from collision
energy spectrum from DEM simulations.
To simulate breakage on ball mills, previous work conducted by Tavares and Carvalho
(2009) and Tavares and Carvalho (2010) proposed to consider the ball mill as a perfect
mixing reactor, in which the material properties are equally distributed. The ball mill
model assumes that a certain volume of particles will be captured between grinding
media and the energy transferred is divided among the captured particles after each
collision. However, the energy provided by the impact results in different breakage
mechanisms, which depends on the magnitude on the impact and on the ore
properties. Figure 3-11 presents a schematic overview of the breakage possibilities
after each impact. The captured particles may suffer body breakage or surface
breakage due to chipping and/or abrasion mechanisms.
Figure 3-11: Schematic diagram of the collision event of the mechanistic model (Tavares and
Carvalho, 2009).
The model couples DEM and empirical/phenomenological models that describe the
outcome of each breakage event as illustrated in Figure 3-12.
23
Figure 3-12: Schematic illustration of the input information for the mechanistic model (Tavares,
2015).
The model assumes that the normal component of the collision is entirely responsible
for the breakage. Previous studies conducted at LTM showed good agreement
between the UFRJ mechanistic model results with experiments when predicting nonfirst order rates of coarser particles of a laboratory batch ball mill test. Furthermore, the
effect of operating and design variables in ball milling has been investigated by
Carvalho and Tavares (2013). They simulated the batch grinding of narrow size
samples with the mechanistic model over a wide range of operational variables. Their
predictions were in general agreement with the literature.
Finally, the model was also extended to other applications such as vertical impact
crusher (Cunha et al., 2013), SAG mills (Carvalho, 2014) and material handling
(Tavares and Carvalho, 2011).
24
25
75
59.4
20
15
30
10
40
11
20
75
60.5
12
30
67.5
54.4
30
75
60.5
14
30
85
68.6
15
40
75
60.5
75
62.2
75
60.5
13
25
16
20
17
40
30
18
40
5
6
20
Distribution
30
40
Table 4-2: Standard ball size distribution based on that from the Bond test (equivalent to 20% of
the mill filling).
Ball
diameter
(mm)
Nominal
Interval
36.5
35-39
36
30.2
29-31
62
25.4
25-28
12
19.1
19-23
61
15.9
15-16
114
Table 4-3: Relationship between mill filling and total mass of balls.
Mill
filling
(%)
20
19.8
30
29.8
40
39.8
Then, in the following tests, powder was added to the charge. The material used for the
experimental batch tests was a granulite rock provided by the Brazilian Company
Pedra Sul/Petra, located in Matias Barbosa, Minas Gerais State. Its specific gravity
2.69 g/cm3 was determined from picnometry tests at LTM. This rock has considerably
high mechanical strength, which prevents it from degrading during handling and
screening operations associated to the experimental testwork. As such, it represents
an ideal material for investigating grinding kinetics in the laboratory. Moreover, another
sample of this ore has been previously characterized by (Tavares and Neves, 2008).
26
The material was first sieved as the size range in the feed to the tests was selected to
be +1.18-9.50 mm and later a pile was formed to allow separation of representative
samples for each batch experiment.
In order to study the effect of mill filling, powder filling, percentage of critical speed, ball
size and percentage of solids many different tests were required and a specific
organized plan was followed. Case number 24 (25 mm ball size, 30% mill filling, 100%
powder filling and 75% of the critical speed) was selected as the base condition and all
other tests were varied according to the progress of the results and the need to
evaluate tests with different operational variables. Table 4-4 and Table 4-5 list all batch
tests that were conducted with their respective detailed variables.
20
80
21
75
22
85
23
67.5
24
24
(2)
25
30
100
25
75
75
85
26
67.5
27
120
28
75
85
29
20
100
75
30
40
100
75
31
20
100
75
30
100
75
30
100
75
33
40
100
75
19
20
100
75
30
100
75
32
32
(2)
34
34
(2)
40
Distribution
30
100
75
35
40
100
75
36
20
100
75
36 (2)
20
100
75
30
100
75
37 (2)
30
100
75
38
40
100
75
37
15
27
Ball
diameter
(mm)
25
40
Distribution
Percentage
of
solids
(%)
Mill
filling
(%)
Powder
filling
(%)
30
100
75
65
75
65
75
65
75
4.1.1. Measurements
Figure 4-1 illustrates the settings of the laboratory ball mill used in the batch grinding
tests. The mill has 30 x 30 cm and eight metallic lifters. The lifters were designed to
give an aggressive milling response regarding breakage rate. Their dimensions are
presented in Figure 4-2. The size of the lifters provides intense cataract movement of
the charge inside the mill under normal grinding conditions (Figure 3-6).
28
Figure 4-2: 3-D model of the 30x30 cm laboratory ball mill (left) and the lifter profile (right).
The torque sensor is able to measure torque and power variations over time with 0.1%
error by using the software from Lorenz Messtechnik (Krimmel). Tests running with an
empty mill result in torque values varying close to zero N.m, what allows assuming that
the torque measured later during the batch tests is entirely due to the charge
movement. Figure 4-3 is an example of data extracted from the software. Initial and
final peaks from both torque and power curves indicate the start of the mill rotational
movement and the activation of the breaks respectively. In order to work with the data,
these peaks were not considered in the calculations and the average value of the
remained data of torque and power were extracted for further analyses.
29
Figure 4-4: Mill design 1 (bigger lifters) and mill design 2 (smaller lifters).
With design number 2, the following parameters were used: 25 mm ball size, 75% ! ,
30% of mill filling, and several powder filling conditions as presented in Table 4-1 and
Table 4-4.
2, which
is able to provide mass distribution over a wide range of sizes. However, screening
analyses also may require tremendous amount of time, especially for fine particles
screening when wet screening is usually needed.
Three different methods were used for separation of the material after the grinding
process. The total size analyses include the size intervals shown in Table 4-6.
30
Initial
size
range
9.5
8.0
6.3
4.75
3.35
2.38
1.70
1.18
0.850
0.600
0.425
0.300
0.212
0.150
0.106
0.075
0.053
0.038
0.027
0.020
0.013
0.009
Bottom
Screening (Produtest)
Sympatec (Mytos)
Both Produtest and Ro-tap are automated sieve shakers with large processing
capacity. Produtest is particularly suitable for sieving coarser material and larger
quantities of sample whilst Ro-tap is suited for analyzes of finer material. The latter
supports seven sieves series. The standard time of a sieving batch is 15 minutes and
its rotation movement results in a quick efficient sieving.
After every Ro-tap analysis, the material held in the bottom sieve was quartered so
that only 20g would be analyzed in Sympatec.
31
There are different techniques for analyzing fine particles, including wet sieving and
laser diffraction equipment such as Malvern Mastersizer and Sympatec Mytos. A
comparison of size distributions analyzed using these three techniques was carried out
at LTM, showing good agreement (Hellyer, 2013). Analyses from both wet screening
and Malvern Mastersizer may take a long time and therefore Sympatec Mytos was
chosen for separating particles finer than 425 m.
Sympatec uses a He-Ne laser of 632.8 nm along with a spatial filter in the beam
expansion unit to create a near perfect plane where illumination of the particles takes
place. Laser techniques, such as Sympatec, in summary, measure the angle of
scattered versus the size of the particle. The detectors merely measure these angles of
diffraction and subsequently apply them on an algorithm or models, transforming the
data into particle size distribution.
32
33
Table 4-7: Batch grinding time intervals for tests including ore powder.
Batch
step
10
34
Batch
grinding
(Steps
1
to
4)
Sympatec
(bottom-0.450
mm)
(only
20g
from
bottom
Ro-
tap
sieve
is
analyzed)
Produtest
(+4.75-9.5
mm)
Ro-tap
(+0.45-4.75
mm)
Figure 4-9: Different size analysis techniques for 1 minute grinding depending on the size interval
of the particles.
35
Figure 4-10: Size analyses of duplicate cases using different ball size: 15 mm (top left), 25 mm (top
right), 40 mm (bottom left) and distribution (bottom right).
36
Figure 4-11 shows two distinct graphs. The first illustrates the disappearance of the ore
top size class, whilst the second shows the variation of the average power measured
with grinding time. Again, good agreement is reached. Deviations between replicates
are greater in the disappearance plots of the top size fraction, but this may be, in part,
explained by the log axis of the graph.
Figure 4-11: Breakage rate of 8 mm size class (left) and variation of power with time (right) of
duplicate tests.
Table 4-8: Material parameters used for EDEM simulations (Dem Solutions Ltd.).
Material
parameters
for
steel
Specific
gravity
(kg/m)
7800
0.1
Poisson's ratio
0.3
Contact parameters used in the simulations were selected as follows. First, contact
parameters between steel-steel surfaces, which were found in the literature, were used
(Dem Solutions Ltd., 2013). This first set of simulations resulted in good comparison
with experimental tests using only grinding media as charge (Cases 5-18).
It is important to notice that experimental cases (19-45) include ore filling whilst only
grinding media have been included in the simulations. Then, the contact parameters
were changed to compensate for the existence of the ore in the simulations. According
to previous researches (Carvalho and Tavares, 2013, Ramos et al., 2011), this is a
reasonable assumption as the behavior of the steel balls is affected by the presence of
ore particles in the charge. Simulations following a factorial design with the three
contact parameters were conducted and the set of parameters that resulted in a charge
movement more similar by visual inspection to the actual experimental movement of
the charge was chosen for the additional simulations. Thus, these new estimated
contact parameters represent ball-ball collisions in which the contacts are accounting
for the presence of particles although they do not exist in the simulations. The
parameters are clearly different when used to represent ball-ball (steel-steel) and ballwall (steel-steel) contacts.
Table 4-9: Contact parameters for steel-steel surfaces (middle) and contact parameters to
compensate the existence of ore particles.
Contact parameters
Coefficient of restitution
0.7
0.65
0.2
0.24
0.01
0.48
38
Figure 4-12: Snapshot of EDEM simulation where balls are colored by their kinetic velocity (J=30%,
=75% and db=25 mm).
One of the greatest advantages of EDEM is its powerful capacity of post processing
data, which allows the extraction of almost every type of information used during the
simulation stages. However, as the amount of generated data may become huge of
several gigabytes in some cases, the data resulting from DEM simulations must be
properly treated (Weerasekara and Powell, 2008). A computational tool written with the
software Matlab R2012, from Mathworks, was developed by Carvalho (2014) at LTM
to extract relevant data and analyze mill performance by generating the following
information: power draw, particles velocities, position of the particles as function of
time, and frequency and magnitude of collisions.
This tool, called LTM Analyst, uses the variation of the center of mass of charge to
calculate mill power, as described by (Bbosa et al., 2011). For this, it uses EDEM
recorded information of particle position, speed, rotation and also normal and tangential
energy loss of the collision. Figure 4-13 shows the power draw of the ball mill used for
the simulations, which has the same dimensions of the ball mill used for the
experimental tests. The extraction time starts at five minutes of grinding simulation
allowing enough time for the process to achieve steady state, thus providing better
analyses of the charge motion.
39
350
300
Power (W/m)
250
200
150
100
50
0
4.8
5.8
6.8
7.8
8.8
Time
in
EDEM
simulation
(s)
9.8
Figure 4-13: Power draw of the ball mill (J=30%, =75% and db=25 mm).
In addition, LTM Analyst provides great insights into mass density distribution and
velocity of the charge as well as spatial distribution of the collisions. Figure 4-14 are
examples of data obtained using post processing routines of LTM Analyst. The velocity
profile represents the average velocity of the particles inside the mill as function of mill
coordinates. The blue color indicates the region known as the eye of the charge where
the velocity is near zero, whilst the red area indicates the region where the particles
achieve greater speed. The figure on the right shows the density of particles per meter
per second, which demonstrates the frequency of the particles appear at that specific
zone in the mill during the time of simulation. To enhance the visibility of the differences
in the profiles, the regions are colored by the log of the velocity or the variable of
interest such as the particle density per length of the mill.
Figure 4-14: Velocity profile (left) and particle frequency (right), (J=30%, =75% and db=25 mm).
40
5.1.1. Power
In this section, experimental data related to power consumption during batch grinding
are presented.
The evolution of the average power measurements along time can be seen in Figure
5-1 and Figure 5-3. These average values are represented as points at the final minute
of the time intervals given in Table 4-7. Ball diameter is probably the variable that
indicates the most noticeable effect on power. Figure 5-1 shows the variation of power
with time for tests with different grinding media size. First, results from dry grinding
experiments are presented. The power draw tends to decrease as the ore charge
becomes finer, i.e. at longer grinding times. Regarding the ball size, the capacity of the
lifters at elevating small balls, what dislocates the center of gravity away from the mill
center, also requires a considerable amount of energy to do so, which results in lower
power draw as the grinding media diameter increases. Then, results of wet grinding
can be seen, which also shows greater power consumption for tests with smaller ball
sizes.
The effect of mill filling is presented in Figure 5-2. It indicates a relation between power
consumption to the mass of the charge. There is a great difference between 20% of
mill filling and the other results, independently of ball size. The test using 40% of the
mill filling demonstrated to consume more energy when all dry grinding tests are
compared. Wet grinding with 30% of mill filling showed the highest power consumption,
even if compared to dry tests with 40% of mill filling, thus not only the mass of the
charge is important but also its movement, which changes with powder aggregation.
41
Figure 5-1: Variation of power with time for tests with different ball sizes: Dry (above) and wet
(below), (J=30%, =75% and U=100%).
42
Figure 5-2: Effect of mill filling on power consumption ( =75% and U=100%).
It is important to notice that the percentage of critical speed plays an important role on
power as indicated in Figure 5-3. Independently of the percentage of the critical speed,
the four dry tests indicate a tendency of decreasing power with time. However, the
power resulted from wet batch grinding increases with time due to segregation of the
fine particles with water on the mill wall, dislocating the center of gravity away from the
mill center. Cleary (1998) stated that segregation of the charge increases power
consumption. In Figure 5-3, the test with 85% of the critical speed indicated the
minimum value of power consumption. However, it will be explained in the following
sections that this same test is by far the least efficient regarding the combination of
breakage x power consumption.
43
Figure 5-3: Variation of power with grinding time for different percentage of the critical speed
(J=30%, U=100% and db=25 mm).
Powder filling increases power consumption as it adds mass to the charge. Figure 5-4
indicates there is great difference between tests with charge composed of balls plus
ore powder from those with charge composed of steel balls only. The difference of
power among tests with 80%-120% of powder filling almost cannot be distinguished,
varying less than 5%.
In fact, the contribution of the ore, or powder filling, can be extremely difficult to
measure and to understand. Again, Figure 5-5 shows the difference on average power
consumption between tests using only iron balls and charge composed by ball plus
100% of powder filling for two different ball sizes: 15 mm (left) and 40 mm (right).
44
Figure 5-4: Variation of power with percentage of critical speed for different powder fillings (J=30%,
=75% and db=25 mm).
Figure 5-5: Effect of 100% powder filling on power for different mill filling percentages. Ball size: 15
mm (left) and 40 mm (right).
45
It is clear that both ball size and mill filling influence the contribution of the ore to the
power consumption. Lower percentage of mill filling indicates a more substantial
contribution of the ore on power, hence the considerable difference on the graph. The
same conclusion can be reached for smaller balls: when 15 mm balls were used, a
greater difference on curves representing conditions with and without powder could be
seen.
All effects caused by these operational variables may change according to the mill
internal configuration. The lifters used for the experimental tests on this work are very
aggressive in projecting the media and it may or may not be a good design considering
energy efficiency (Section 5.1.3). There may be though a relationship regarding the
ratio: height of lifter and ball diameter (! /! ), which should be able to indicate the
best mill design according to the size of the ball used and vice-versa. This relationship
will be investigated in future studies and is beyond the scope of the present work.
46
Figure 5-6: Size analyzes of each batch grinding step (J=30%, U=100% and =75%). Top-left:
db=15 mm log-log scale; bottom-left: db=15 mm semi-log scale; Top-right: db=40 mm log-log scale;
bottom-right: db=40 mm semi-log scale.
47
Figure 5-7: Size distribution after 10 minutes of grinding using different ball sizes (J=30%, U=100%
and =75%).
Smaller grinding media are not able to break coarse particles because they cannot
provide the energy needed to break them during impact. This statement can be
confirmed by observing Figure 5-7 and Figure 4-11 (left). In fact, the difference on
breakage of the top size class (8 mm) reached 66% when choosing 40 mm over 15
mm balls. As the diameter of the grinding media gets coarser, more intense breakage
of coarse particles occurs during the grinding process. Figure 5-8 shows the difference
of the grinding product using different ball sizes after five minutes of grinding. On the
left, it is possible to see the existence of several large particles whilst no material above
about 2 mm survives grinding on the right picture after the longest grinding time.
The effect of powder filling can be seen in Figure 5-9 (left). When less mass (powder)
composes the charge, the impact probability is higher because of the greater chance of
balls nipping the particles, which are in smaller quantity. In addition, Figure 5-9 (right)
shows data regarding the effect of mill filling. Again, less mass (balls) resulted in more
intense breakage, indicating that 20% of mill filling should be the optimal breakage
condition.
48
Figure 5-8: Product size after five minutes grinding using db=15 mm (left) and db=40 mm (right).
(J=30%, U=100%, =75%).
Figure 5-9: Effect of powder filling (left) and mill filling (right) on size distribution after ten minutes
grinding using 25 mm balls (left) and ball distribution (right).
The effect of speed on particle breakage can be seen in Figure 5-10. Higher
percentages of the critical speed results in lower breakage probabilities, independently
of the percentage of powder filling. It shows that 85% of the critical speed results in
less breakage, especially for intermediate size class particles.
49
Figure 5-10: Effect of rotational speed on size distribution after ten minutes grinding using U=80%
(left), U=100% (middle) and U=120% (right) (db=25 mm and J=30%).
!"(!"#$!!")
!""!"#$%
!"#$
! (!!" !"#$%&')
!"!
% (!!" !"#$%&')
!
(5-1)
(5-2)
where, PF is the production of fines, hold-up is the input mass of the test and power is
the average power measured during 10 minutes of grinding. These two parameters are
also the values of the angular coefficient of linear curves intercepting zero. An example
can be seen in Figure 5-11.
50
Figure 5-11: Graphic representation of productivity and grindbility calculations of cases 20 - 22.
Table 5-1 summarizes angular coefficient values from tests carried out with different
percentage of the critical speed and powder filling. It indicates that tests with lower
speeds produce more fines, making the process also more efficient. As such, it
suggests that more energy is directed to actual breakage. It is believed that grinding
tests using higher percentage of the critical speed could not match such good results
given that the combination between lifter height and mill rotational speed enhanced the
cataract movement in such a way that the impact zone became inefficient.
Consequently, much energy is spent on inefficient impacts (ball-wall) whilst ball-ore
impacts were not assured. This becomes particularly evident by analyzing results of
DEM simulations, which indicated the significant ultraprojection at higher mill speeds
(Figure 5-12).
Figure 5-12: Charge (balls) frequency extracted from LTM Analyst showing different impact zone
caused by different speed: = 85% (left) and = 67.5 (right).
51
Table 5-1: Fines generated and grindability from dry tests using 25 mm balls and 30% of mill filling.
Case
#
%
!
!
!"!
10!!
! (%)
Production of fines
Grindability
20
1.7353
0.550
21
1.5602
0.486
22
1.3565
0.456
85
23
1.491
0.572
67.5
24
1.4179
0.548
24(2)
1.2788
0.49
25
1.0472
0.434
85
26
1.352
0.635
67.5
27
1.1252
0.526
28
0.9104
0.454
67.5
80
100
120
75
75
75
(2)
75
85
* Green color indicates higher values, yellow color indicates intermediate values and red color
indicates smaller values.
Overall comparison of all dry tests (Table 5-2 - left) shows that case 20 (db=25 mm,
U=80%, J=30% and 67.5% ! ) contains the operational variables considered to
represent the optimal condition to produce the greatest amount of fines. However, in
order to achieve the best correlation between comminution and energy efficiency, other
variables should be used. Case 32 (db=40 mm, U=100%, J=30% and 75% ! )
revealed to have the best operational conditions in terms of efficiency. The ratio lifter
height/ball size proved to be very inefficient for smaller ball sizes, hence the poor
performance of cases using 15 mm balls in both production and efficiency.
Furthermore, 15 mm balls are considered very small for an ore top size of 8 mm,
resulting in inefficient breakage of coarse particles.
Results from wet grinding tests confirmed that larger ball sizes yielded improved
operation for the mill and ore studied. In addition, a larger amount of water (lower
percentage of solids) resulted in lower efficiency, probably because the additional mass
represented by the water increased the power consumption, with limited additional
fines produced. Wet grinding with 75% of solids content demonstrated to be more
efficient than dry grinding when the same conditions are applied (Cases 24 and 41; 32
and 43; 34 and 45). It is better illustrated in Figure 5-13.
52
Table 5-2: Fines generated and grindability from all experimental tests: dry grinding (left) and wet
grinding (right).
Case
#
19
20
21
22
%
!
1.3907
1.7353
1.5602
1.3565
!
!"!
10!!
Case #
%
!
40
1.4915
0.519
0.55
41
1.6636
0.618
0.486
42
1.8051
0.654
0.456
43
1.7919
0.694
44
1.6538
0.582
45
1.6077
0.644
23
1.491
0.572
24
1.4179
0.548
24(2)
1.2788
0.49
25
1.0472
0.434
26
1.352
0.635
27
1.1252
0.526
28
0.9104
0.454
29
1.6518
0.548
30
1.1904
0.599
31
1.6364
0.621
32
1.5996
0.694
32(2)
1.4868
0.642
33
1.2305
0.694
34
1.4383
0.599
34(2)
1.4462
0.599
35
1.1989
0.599
36
1.1332
0.359
36(2)
1.1674
0.366
37
1.1162
0.415
37(2)
1.129
0.411
0.422
0.8826
10!!
0.487
38
!
!"!
53
Figure 5-13: Effect of ball size and percentage of solids on grinding efficiency. Dry data is the
average of duplicate cases (J=30%, U=100% and =75%).
Figure 5-14: Effect of ball size and mill filling on grinding efficiency (U=100% and =75%).
54
Figure 5-15: Effect of mill design on grinding efficiency (J=30%, db=25 mm and =75%).
Given the lower height of the lifters, mill design #2 demonstrated to be considerably
more efficient. At this speed (! = 75%), the elevation of the charge provided by the
higher lifter is not favorable. Mill design #1 would only achieve the same grinding
efficiency if some operational variables were changed, such as decrease of rotational
speed and increase in ball size. It is interesting to notice that a small change in design
55
5.2. Simulation
56
Figure 5-16: Effect of percentage of critical speed on power from simulation using different contact
parameters. (J=30% and db=25 mm).
Figure 5-17: Effect of ball size and mill filling on power from simulation using different contact
parameters.
57
The energy spectrum is also another type of analysis provided from post process DEM
collisions. It provides a great perception of the energy transferred between pairs of ballball and ball-liner collisions. Figure 5-18 shows collision energy spectra obtained from
DEM simulations for the batch grinding tests using different percentages of mill filling.
The number of collisions with higher magnitude increases with the mill filling; however,
there is not a considerable difference between 30% and 40% of the mill filling. It is also
noticeable the high frequency of collisions events with low magnitude. The effect of ball
size obtained from DEM simulations is presented in Figure 5-19. As expected, the
greater ball size the higher number of high energy impacts that will occur among the
charge. Collisions with magnitude below 10-8 J were eliminated providing an increase in
computational efficiency without losing relevant information.
Figure 5-18: Collision energy spectra of balls-balls (left) and balls-liner (right) pairs with different
mill filling percentage (db=40 mm and =75%).
Figure 5-19: Collision energy spectra of balls-balls (left) and balls-liner (right) pairs with different
ball sizes (J=20% and =75%).
58
An analysis of the charge movement showed that tests with different ball sizes
presented distinct charge movement and resulted in different shoulder and toe angles
change for different ball sizes. Again, it is possible to see the influence of the ratio
(! /! ); As presented in Figure 5-20, 40 mm balls are not easily elevated as 15 mm
balls. This results on more efficient impacts as stated in Section 5.1.3. Figure 5-21
illustrates the difference on charge movement caused by mill design. Shoulder and toe
angles are extremely different, this is one of the reasons that explain the difference in
grinding efficiency identified in Section 5.1.4 when liner profile was modified.
Figure 5-20: Particle frequency profiles extracted from LTMAnalyst showing different charge
movement caused by different ball sizes: 15 mm (left), 25 mm (middle) and 40 mm (right).
Figure 5-21: Particle frequency profiles extracted from LTMAnalyst showing different charge
movement behavior obtained from different mill designs running at same operational conditions:
Mill design 1 (left) and Mill design 2 (right) (J=30%, db=25 mm and =75%).
.
59
60
Figure 5-22: UFRJ mechanistic model predictions for different mill filling: J=30% (left) and J=40%
(right). (U=100%, db=40 mm and =75%).
Figure 5-23: UFRJ mechanistic model predictions for smaller ball sizes: db=15 mm (left) and db=25
mm (right). (U=100%, J=30% and =75%).
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Figure 5-24: Comparison between disappearance of top size class from simulation and
experimental data.
Through this work, the UFRJ mechanistic model proved to have the potential to predict
breakage from a vast range of operational variables, including conditions that are not
regularly used in the industry. The fact that different ball sizes, mill fillings and grinding
times resulted in different predictions with certain agreement to experimental data is
already an indication of the outstanding capabilities of the model.
consumption using DEM for all cases with good agreement in these simulations, which
did not explicitly incorporate the ore charge. This difference may be caused by the
contribution of the ore on power consumption, which is not yet entirely clear.
The contribution of the ore on power consumption becomes larger for smaller
percentage of mill filling. Also, the DEM simulation results showed even poorer
agreement with experiments when higher percentages of the critical speed were used.
However, this difference may not be as evident when predicting power from full-scale
mills.
Figure 5-25: Comparison of the charge movement: experimental (left), simulation using EDEM and
post-processing using LTM Analyst (J=30%, =75% , db=25 mm and for the experimental case,
U=100%).
63
Figure 5-26: Power consumption for different percentage of mill filling (db=25 mm, =75% and
experimental data with U=100%).
Figure 5-27: Comparison between simulated and experimental power consumption (J=30%, db=25
mm and U=100%).
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6. Conclusions
Operational variables have a significant influence on both particle breakage and power
consumption. The grinding process can be completely changed if one of the variables
is altered. Grinding media size is the variable that affects power consumption and
particle breakage the most. The use of bigger balls results in a more efficient breakage,
especially of coarse particles. It also decreases power consumption, however this
effect may be linked to the high lifter height used. Lower percentages of mill filling
enhanced breakage probability and decreased power consumption, as the charge was
lighter (less grinding media). Although higher percentages of the critical speed
consumed less energy, it also resulted in less breakage due to the high number of balls
impacted in the inefficient impact zone. Finally, powder filling showed to be an
important variable that need more understanding. Its variation did not show any effect
on power consumption, however lower percentages of powder filling resulted in more
breakage once the particles in the charge were more likely to be impacted against the
grinding media.
The case that produced more fine material per hour (% h) was not the most efficient
case (t kWh), showing that according to the operational variables chosen, either quick
breakage or milling efficiency can be prioritized. Bigger grinding media and lower mill
speed provided better grindability, both in dry and wet cases. The percentage of solids
in wet experimental tests should be controlled once it showed a grindability peak at
75% of solids.
Although DEM simulations provided great insight into charge motion and showed to be
sensitive to most changes in operational variables, they did not comply with most of the
experimental work regarding the magnitude of power consumption. This difference may
be caused by the non-existing ore particles in the simulations, which were not capable
of providing an absolute realistic environment, even though the contact parameters
were changed to compensate it.
The UFRJ mechanistic model for batch ball mill showed extremely good agreement
with experimental data when 40 mm steel balls were used. It also showed good
agreement on predicting breakage of coarse particle (until 4.75 mm) even when
smaller grinding media were used. Nonetheless, the model still needs improvements so
that it will become able to fully predict breakage (until finer size classes) under various
operational variables, including small grinding media. It is likely, that at least some of
65
the deviations can still be explained by the fact that breakage parameters used in the
simulations were from another sample, although from the same rock deposit.
66
7. Future work
Further experimental work with lower rotational speed should be conducted. As it was
showed in this work the dimensions of the lifters resulted in extremely aggressive
motion with ultraprojection of the charge. To find the optimal operational conditions
under which this mill will achieve better efficiency is an important goal. Figure 7-1 is an
indication that different mill designs can provide similar charge motion depending on
the operational variables used. Therefore, this more normal behavior of the charge
may provide tools to make a deeper comparison on grindability using different designs.
Figure 7-1: Particle frequency extracted from LTM Analyst showing charge movement caused by
different designs and rotational speeds: Mil design 1 (left) with =50% and Mill design 2 (right)
with =75% (J=30% and db=25 mm).
Given the size of the mill used in this work, where the presence of ore particles plays a
role in contributing to the total power draw. In order to provide insights on their
contribution via simulations, small particles representing ore should be introduced in
the DEM simulations. This will require higher computational capacity and the contact
parameters between steel-ore and ore-ore should be previously calibrated. As a result,
not only a better understanding of the influence of the powder ore on the charge motion
as well as on power consumption may be achieved but it will also be possible to
investigate the mixing patterns of the charge movement.
These improvements will provide even more resources to enhancing the applicability of
the UFRJ mechanistic model of tumbling mills.
67
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Figure 9-1: Power comparison (experimental x center of gravity x energy loss) for different mill
filling percentages and grinding media size ( =75%).
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