Minerals Engineering 41 (2013) 916

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Minerals Engineering
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/mineng

Assessing the stirred mill design space

Peter Radziszewski
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Comminution Dynamics Lab, McGill University, 817 Sherbrooke Str. West, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3A 0C3

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In the context of the mining industry, smaller grain size and other mineralogical characteristics have
Received 19 April 2012 motivated the need to grind ner. In order to address this need, the interest in ne grinding technologies
Accepted 2 October 2012 has grown over the last 20 years as is illustrated by a growing body of knowledge on stirred milling.
Available online 4 December 2012
Emphasis in recent years has been on the use of computationally intensive modeling and simulation
methods such as the discrete element method (DEM) and computational uid dynamics (CFDs). However,
Keywords: due to the computational requirements of these two methods, initiating a study that spans the stirred
Stirred mills
mill design space would take a lot of computational effort and time. Therefore the goal of this paper is
Shear
Design
to propose and apply a simplied stirred mill model that will then be used to assess congurations in
Power the stirred mill design space.
To this end, a stirred mill model was proposed based on the assumption that the main if not only mech-
anism of ore breakage is shear. As the basis of this model is the uid mechanics denition of shear stress,
the stirred mill power model became a function of viscosity, mill speed and a new parameter called shear
volume. An initial validation using published data indicated the shear based power model correlated well
with measured power.
Establishing a morphological chart to delimit the stirred mill design space indicated that 24 design and
operating conditions can be assess using the established shear volume measure. The results indicated for
the mill congurations tested that a change in stirred mill liner design can potentially increase shear vol-
ume and power from 14% to 290% as compared to smooth chamber liners.
2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Stirred mill technology dates back to 1928 (Stehr, 1988)
where the idea to use an agitator and spherical grinding media
was presented. The year 1948 saw the successful application of
Du Ponts sand mill for pigment grinding. Subsequent years
have led to the development of different types of stirred mills
spanning a number of industries that require ne and ultrane
grinding.
In the context of the mining industry, smaller grain size and
other mineralogical characteristics have motivated the need to
grind ner. In order to address this need, the interest in ne grind-
ing technologies has grown over the last 20 years as can be illus-
trated by the large body of literature published over this same
period of time. These studies address the stirred mill characteriza-
tion from a mass balance (Baudet et al., 1999; Bel Fadhel et al.,
1999; Bernhardt et al., 1999; Berthiaux et al., 1996a,b; Berthiaux,
2000; Cho et al., 1996; Frances et al., 2001; Muller et al., 1999; Siv-
amohan and Vachot, 1990; Stehr, 1984; Varinot et al., 1997, 1999;
Weller et al., 2000; Yue and Klein, 2004, 2005a,b; Zhenhua et al.,
Tel.: +1 514 398 6282; fax: +1 514 398 7365.
E-mail address: peter.radziszewski@mcgill.ca
1998), particle motion (Barley et al., 2004; Blecher and Schwedes,
1996; Conway-Baker et al., 2002; Theuerkauf and Schwedes, 1999;
Thyn and Pokorny, 1980) and energy/mass point-of-view (Becker
and Schwedes, 1999; Becker et al., 2001; Bel Fadhel and Frances,
2001; Blecher et al., 1996; Gao and Forssberg, 1993, 1995; Janko-
vic, 2001, 2003; Kapur et al., 1996; Keuhen et al., 1988; Kheifets
and Lin, 1998; Kwade and Schwedes, 2002; Kwades, 1999a,b;
Kwades et al., 1996; Mankosa et al., 1986, 1989; Mende et al.
2003; Neese et al., 2004; Nesset et al., 2006; Sadler et al., 1997; Tu-
zun et al., 1995; Wang and Forssberg, 2000; Weller, 1996; Zheng
et al., 1996) with only one paper covering the interactive subjects
of power consumption, ore grinding and media wear (Becker and
Schwedes, 1999). Focusing on the works treating mill performance,
these papers can be paired down to those where energy in grinding
was either calculated from typically a volume based procedure
leading to stress intensity (Becker and Schwedes, 1999; Blecher
et al., 1996; Kheifets and Lin, 1998; Kwades, 1999a,b; Kwades
et al., 1996; Kwade and Schwedes, 2002) or measured directly
(Becker et al., 2001; Bel Fadhel and Frances, 2001; Gao and Forss-
berg, 1993; Jankovic, 2003; Keuhen et al., 1988; Mankosa et al.,
1986; Mende et al., 2003; Nesset et al., 2006; Sadler et al., 1997;
Tuzun et al., 1995; Wang and Forssberg, 2000; Weller, 1996; Zheng
et al., 1996).

0892-6875/$ - see front matter 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mineng.2012.10.012
10 P. Radziszewski / Minerals Engineering 41 (2013) 916

This body of knowledge indicates that there are a number of de-

sign and operating parameters that affect stirred mill performance.
These include but are not limited to impellor type, tip speed, media
size, impellor tip to mill wall gap size, lling, slurry rheology, med-
ia and slurry density, solid concentration and slurry ow.
Emphasis in recent years has been on the use of computation-
ally intensive modeling and simulation methods such as the dis-
crete element method (DEM) (Martins et al., 2011; Mishra and
Rajamani, 1990, 1992, 1993a,b; Sinnot et al., 2006, 2011; Clear Fig. 1. Shear between two parallel plates sliding past one another.
et al., 2006); Jayasundara et al., 2006, (Jayasundara et al., 2008,
2009, 2010, 2011) and computational uid dynamics (CFDs) (Eskin
et al., 2005; Gers et al., 2010; Lane, 1999; Vuthaluru et al., 2006). sliding or shear stress (s) is a function of a parameter known as vis-
However, due to the computational requirements of these two cosity (l) and the velocity (u) over the uid thickness (y):
methods, initiating a study that spans the stirred mill design space
u
would take a lot of computational effort and time. Therefore the sl 3
goal of this paper is to propose and apply a simplied stirred mill
y
model that will then be used to assess congurations in the stirred In a rotating system, such as a rotating concentric viscometer
mill design space. (Streeter and Wylie, 1979), the same description can be made as
illustrated in Fig 2. In this particular case, the sliding velocity (u)
2. Dening a performance metric is a product of the angular rotation speed (x) and the radius of
the surface (r) resulting in the shear stress expression being mod-
In a thorough analysis, Kwade et al. (Blecher et al., 1996; Kwade ied to:
et al., 1996; Kwade, 1999a,b; Kwade and Schwedes, 2002) devel- xr
oped a stress intensity relationship by using dimensional analysis. sl 4
y
This relationship has been used extensively to evaluate grinding
performance in operating stirred mills (Jankovic, 2001). As pre- If the surface over which the shear stress is applied to is known,
sented, the stress intensity relationship produces a value, SIr, has it becomes possible to determine the force acting on that surface.
the units of energy (Nm). Typically, multiplying such a value with In the case of a rotating system, the resulting force would dene
the angular rotation speed of the impellor, x, would produce a va- the torque acting on the system as:
lue having the units of power (W) which should relate to measured xr 2
power through the use of a correlation factor, fr, giving the follow- T sAr lA Nm 5
y
ing relationship:
Assuming that all shear surfaces are in contact with the shear-
Pr fr SIr x W 1 ing uid, the power needed to turn that cylinder can be determined
where: as follows:
x2 r 2
SIr D3b qm  qsl m2 2 P s T x lA W 6
y
Db is the media diameter m It will be assumed that Eq. (6) is applicable to dening the
power being consumed in a stirred mill. Grouping the area over
qm is the media density kg=m3 which shear is acting, A, the radius at which the shear is acting,
r, and the gap over which shear is acting, y, produces a value that
qsl is the slurry density kg=m3 has cubic meters for its units and will therefore be known as the
shear volume. It is dened as follows:
m is the stirrer tip speed m=s r2
Vs A m3 7
In examining the resulting power relationship (Eq. (1)), it be- y
comes evident that it would be of limited use in the assessment This allows the redenition of mill power (Eq. (6)) as a function
and comparison of different stirred mill design congurations be- of shear volume as:
cause only operating parameters are used in this denition of mill
power. Ideally, a design performance metric would include ele- Ps lx2 V s W 8
ments of the physical dimensions of the mill being assessed. As a
result, an effort to re-examine the development of a stirred mill
model is motivated.
As such and for the purposes of simplicity, it will be assumed
that the only mechanism of ore breakage in a stirred mill is
through two media particles sliding past one another, nipping
some ore and, depending on the speed and applied force, breaking
that nipped ore. This sliding mechanism also applies to layers of
media particles sliding past one another grinding any ore found be-
tween these layers. Whether it is limited to single particles or slid-
ing layers of particles, the predominant ore breakage mechanism is
shear.
From a uid mechanics point of view, shear typically is de-
scribed by two parallel plates sliding past one another and sepa-
rated by a uid of a given thickness (see Fig. 1). The resistance to Fig. 2. Shear between concentric cylinders.
 P. Radziszewski / Minerals Engineering 41 (2013) 916
Applying these relationships to a stirred mill would require not
only the knowledge of the physical dimensions of the impellor and
chamber, but also a determination of all parallel shear surfaces that
are in contact with the uid media.
In any given stirred mill there are number of parallel or near
parallel surfaces. However, only the parallel surfaces moving past
one another would be admissible as parallel shear surfaces. This
criterion means that parallel surfaces on the impellor, such as
the surfaces of two adjacent disks, would not be admissible as
these two surfaces are moving at the same rotation speed. How-
ever, the circumferential surface on the disk is parallel to the mill
chamber wall and is denitely moving past the stationary mill
chamber wall. Therefore these parallel surfaces are a parallel shear
surface pair. Further, the surface of a disk found at the bottom or
end of an impellor shaft would be parallel to the bottom of the mill
and would also constitute a parallel shear surface pair.
As a general guideline, if one parallel surface is found on the
rotating impellor and the other is parallel surface is found on or at-
tached to the chamber, then these two surfaces would be consti-
tute a parallel shear surface pair.
This can be illustrated using the following example of a single
disk impellor in a 1 m diameter  1 m media height chamber
(see Fig. 3) where there are three parallel shearing surfaces to be
considered.
The rst one is the disk circumference side (a), the second is the
shaft surface (b) and the third is the circular end (c) (see Fig. 3).
Therefore, the shear volume calculation needs to include the shear
volume contribution of all three of these parallel shear surfaces as
follows:
r 2disk r2shaft r2
V s Adisk Ashaft Aend end 9 lbc
ydisk yshaft yend
where r end r disk  21= 2.
Note that the radius, rend, is determined from integrating shear
stress over the disk end area leading to the rend result as a function
of the disk radius.
It should be noted that all parallel shearing surfaces should be
in contact with the shearing uid in order to be considered. In
Fig. 3, the shear volume is presented for both the case where the
shaft surface is considered in contact with the uid and where it
is not considered in contact. It is interesting to note that the shaft
contribution to shear volume is small for this case.
Fig. 3. Example of shear volume calculation.
11
In the general case where there are several different parallel
shear surface pairs, the shear surface calculation would take the
form of a summation:
Xn
r2
Vs Ai i 10
i0
yi
where n is the number of parallel shear surface pairs in a stirred
mill.
3. Calibrating the performance metric
In the proposed model, one performance metric was presented
which is shear volume. However, the effect of shear volume can
only be evaluated in relationship to mill power consumption which
requires the use of mill power consumption data.
In 1996, Gao et al. (1996) presented a paper on the development
of an empirical power model for a horizontal stirred mill from a de-
sign of experiments involving 27 different operating points. As the
proposed power model is not a function of gravity and that it is ex-
pected that the mill charge is centrifuged during operation of the
mill, it is assumed that this data set is a good data set for initial
model validation.
The shear volume, Vs, is calculated using Eq. (10) with a note
that the shaft is assumed not to be in contact with the shearing
uid. The result is a shear volume of 0.006407 m3.
Assuming that the shear based power, Ps, is equal to the actual
mill power, Pmill, it should be possible to back calculate the viscos-
ity of the mill media/slurry mix as follows:
Pmill
Ns=m2 11
x2 V s
The average of the viscosity, l
 , over the 27 data points leads to a
rst correlation between shear based power and measured mill
power as illustrated in Fig. 4. Although the graph in Fig. 4 indicates
that there is a correlation between measured and estimated power,
the correlation is rather weak. However, this correlation clearly
underlines the inuence of rotation speed on the mills power
consumption.
This correlation can be improved by observing that the viscosity
is also a function of the rotational speed of the mill as shown in
Fig. 5.
12 P. Radziszewski / Minerals Engineering 41 (2013) 916
Fig. 4. First correlation between shear power and measured power.
Fig. 5. Viscosity as a function of rotation speed.
Using the trend relationship in Fig. 5 along with the general
form of Gaos empirical power model (Gao et al., 1996), it becomes
possible to propose a generalized form for a stirred mill viscosity
model as follows:
12
The reference values are:
Dbref 0:00205 m; qmref 7:8 g=cc; qslref 1 g=cc
It is important to note that this model provides a baseline vis-
cosity value which is a function of rotation speed. Subsequently,
this baseline value is corrected using power functions of adimen-
sional ratios.
Applying this model to Gaos data set (Gao et al., 1996) and the
associated reference values, it is possible to determine which con-
stants and exponents reduce the error between the measure power
and the predicted power. These are:
k 0:0199; a 566:04; b 0:571; c 3:5761; d 0:2; e
5; f 4:0188:
The resulting correlation between the shear power estimate and
the measured power estimate is quite good with an R2 value of
0.9654 and can be found in Fig. 6.
Fig. 6. Stirred mill power correlation with Gaos data set (Gao et al., 1996).
Fig. 7. Stirred mill power comparison.
4. Performance metric validation
Keeping in mind that that goal of the development of this shear
based stirred mill model is to dene a metric that can be used to
evaluate the design parameters of a given mill, it becomes impor-
tant to nd an initial validation data set for a stirred mill of a dif-
ferent geometry than the one used by Gao et al. (1996). To this end,
the work of Jankovic (1998) provides a large experimental data set
for a lab scale tower and Sala (pin) mill. Most of the physical
dimensions and operating parameters were included in the work
as well as measured power consumption with the exception of
tower mill auger thickness. From the physical specications of
the mills, it was possible to determine the shear volume for each.
Assuming the auger thickness is 1 mm, the shear volume for the
tower mill is 0.0004 m3. For the pin mill, the shear volume is
0.0015 m3.
Using these shear volume results along with the associated
operating parameters, it was possible to predict mill power using
Eqs. (8) and (13) and compare these results with the measured stir-
red mill power for these two mills. Plotting these results on those
found in Fig. 6 (see Fig. 7) indicate that the power predictions for
the tower and Sala mills generally fall into line with the previously
calibrated results.
More importantly, this comparison indicates that the shear
based power model provides an estimate of the power consump-
tion of the mills as a function of both the physical design and oper-
ating parameters. This observation conrms that the shear based
power model and its components are sufciently sensitive to
changes in impellor design and therefore can be used to assess dif-
ferent stirred mill design congurations.
5. Stirred mill design space
All stirred mills are composed of four components which are
(Fig. 8) the motor/transmission, the impellor, the chamber and
 P. Radziszewski / Minerals Engineering 41 (2013) 916 13

chamber wall is modied with protrusions such as pins. As such,

one can add similar protrusions to the chamber as found on an
impellor: pins and disks. Also, there is some interest in the devel-
opment of annular gap mills (Reinsch et al., 1991; Orumwense,
1992; Stender et al., 2004). The resulting morphological chart (Ta-
ble 2) delimits the stirred mill design space to be assessed.

6. Design space assessment

Examining the stirred mill design space as described in Table 2,

there are a couple of alternatives that will not be assessed. The rst
is the horizontal mill orientation as it is assumed that mill opera-
tion of disk or pin mills will ensure that the mill charge is well cen-
trifuged. The second is the shear uid which will be assumed to be
Fig. 8. Sketch of the main components of a stirred mill.
homogenous with equal slurry and bead densities (1000 g/cc), a
bead size equal to the reference size and no viscosity modifying
additives (x = 0). The resulting design space to assess reduces from
the mill charge. Each of these components fullls a particular func-
a possible 144 possible congurations to 36 (three speeds, four
tion. Essentially, motor/transmission converts electrical energy
impellors, three containment structures). However, only the
into mechanical energy dened by rotation speed and torque.
smooth liner containment structure will work with the screw
The mechanical energy is transferred to the charge by the impellor
and drum impellors. Therefore only 24 design combinations (eight
and the mill charge transfers that energy to the ore through com-
designs and three speeds) will be assessed.
minution. The chamber is a containment system in which all of
The containment chamber is 1 m diameter and a media depth of
these components can be found.
1 m. The three rotation speeds used for the assessment are
The components and their variations can be laid out in the mor-
100 rpm, 500 rpm and 1000 rpm.
phological chart found in Table 1. From this chart, one can easily
The eight design combinations are found in Fig. 9 with the asso-
reconstruct the different stirred mills commercially available to
ciated results for shear volume as well as power in Table 3.
the mining industry.
A number of observations can be made from the results pre-
However, with shear being assumed to be the main grinding
sented in Table 3. These are:
mechanism, there is room to propose that a stirred mill can actu-
ally be dened by seven sub-functions as follows: in any orienta-
(i) The shear volume increases from a low for the pin impellor
tion, the motor/transmission converts electrical energy into
only to a high with the drum impellor only.
mechanical energy dened by rotation speed and torque. The
(ii) Although the pin impellor mill has a lower shear volume
mechanical energy is transfer to an impellor structure which then
than the screw impellor mill for this scale of mill, it is oper-
transfer this energy through a 1st shear surface to the mill uid.
ated at a higher rotation speed resulting in higher power
The uid in turn transfers a portion of that energy through to the
consumption than the screw impellor mill as seen in litera-
2nd shear surface to the containment structure.
ture (Jankovic, 1998).
In this modied list of sub-functions, comminution is removed
(iii) The additions of protrusions such as pins and then disks to
as it is actually part of the multi-phase uid system which is com-
the chamber liners increases the shear volume by 32% and
posed of water, media and ore.
210% respectively for the pin mill shown.
Before redistributing the different stirred mill alternative com-
(iv) The additions of protrusions such as pins and then disks to
ponents in a modied morphological chart, it might be of interest
the chamber liners increases the shear volume by 29% and
to expand the possible alternatives with those indicated in the re-
55% respectively for the disk mill shown.
view of Stehr (1988). In this review of high speed stirred milling
(v) The drum impellor which represents the annular gap mill
technologies it is indicated that in some cases the containment
shows the greatest shear volume and associated mill power.

Table 1
Initial morphological chart for a stirred mill.

Function Alternative components

Energy conversion Motor-transmission (low speed) Motor-transmission (med. speed) Motor-transmission (high speed)
Energy transfer Screw impellor Pin impellor Disk impellor
Comminution Iron media Ceramic media Sand Pebbles
Containment Vertical chamber Horizontal chamber

Table 2
Modied morphological chart for stirred mill development.

Function Alternatives
Orientation Vertical Horizontal
Energy conversion Low speed Medium speed High speed
Impellor shape Disk impellor Screw (augar) impellor Pin impellor Drum impellor
1st shear surface Parallel surface
Shear uid Homogeneous Multi-phase
2nd shear surface Parallel surface
Containment structure Smooth liner Disk liner Pin liner
14 P. Radziszewski / Minerals Engineering 41 (2013) 916

Fig. 9. Stirred mill design combinations.

Table 3
Shear volumes and shear power for the stirred mills in Fig. 9.

Shear volume (m3) Shear power (100 rpm) (kW) Shear power (500 rpm) (kW) Shear power (1000 rpm) (kW)
3  6 Pin impellor 0.114 0.037 0.367 0.989
Pin on pin 0.150 0.048 0.483 1.301
Pin on disk 0.355 0115 1.143 3.078
Screw impellor 0.466 0.151 1.502 4.044
3 Disk impellor 1.618 0.523 5.213 14.037
Disk on pin 2.079 0.672 6.699 18.038
Disk on disk 2.503 0.809 8.066 21.720
Large diameter drum 4.021 1.299 12.957 34.888

7. Discussion Further, the ratio of shear volume to mill volume can poten-
tially be considered as a measure of shear intensity of a particu-
There are a number of points that should be underlined from lar mill design. The product of such a shear intensity ratio or
the results obtained starting with the design performance metrics factor with the square of the rotation speed and the viscosity
dened and used. of the slurry/media mix would equal the power intensity of the
Shear volume is a new parameter that is based on a uid mill.
mechanics description of shear stresses in a stirred milling. It is A point should be made on the comparison of the shear based
developed from the design parameters of a given mill. Along with power model with the empirical model developed by Gao et al.
mill rotation speed and viscosity it is possible to estimate mill (1996). The complete shear based power model which combines
power consumption. Eq. (8) with viscosity (Eq. (13)) with the exponents is presented
It is interesting to note that the shear volume of a given mill can here:
be greater than the physical volume of that mill. This is mainly due
 2 !0:2 !2  4
to the fact that the shear volume is a function of the inverse of the Db qm qsl 100  x
gap distance between the impellor and the mill chamber wall. Ps kax0:571 x2 V s
Db ref qm ref qsl ref 100
Essentially, as the gap distance decreases, the shear volume
increases. 13
 P. Radziszewski / Minerals Engineering 41 (2013) 916
The Gao power model is reproduced here:
PGao 109:29 N1:429 q0:18 2:9 0:096
m qsl x 14
The differences between the two models are apparent. How-
ever, the form of these two models is very similar. The order of
the exponents related to media and slurry density is similar. Fur-
ther and more importantly, the exponent on the rotation speed
in the two equations is identical. In the shear based power model
(Eq. (14)), the aggregate exponent on the rotation speed is (2
0.571) 1.429 which is the same in Gaos model. This is indeed reas-
suring especially that this result was arrived at from two different
directions.
Despite this promising observation, further investigation and
validation of this model using experimental data for different stir-
red mill congurations and operating conditions is required.
It is expected that with such added investigations, viscosity as a
function of rotation speed would be corrected not only with re-
spect to media diameter, media density, slurry density and viscos-
ity thinners, but also with respect to other parameters such as
viscosity thickeners, slurry temperature, ore granulometry and
gravity effects.
With respect to ore granulometry, it has been shown to affect
the power in an Nesset et al. (2006). However, it has been indicated
that in a mill such as the horizontal mill used by Gao et al. (1996),
ore granulometry has little effect on power consumption. This
should require tying the power model dened from shear stress
with either an energy-size relationship or a breakage kinetics rela-
tionship to estimate the evolving ore granulometry in a given mill.
It is clear from the results presented in Table 3 that the addition
of protrusions to the containment chamber such as pins or disks
can improve the shear volume and associated mill power in a given
mill ranging from 14% to almost 300% for the mills congurations
examined. It should be noted that the results presented in Table 3
are based on the assumption that the shear surface that the shaft
represents is in contact with the uid. However, in the case of a
pin mill, the shaft most likely is not in contact with the uid there-
fore the shaft surface should not be considered in the calculation.
The effect of removing the shaft component to the shear volume
calculation in the case of the pin and disk mills reduces the shear
volume by a few percent.
One last observation can be made related to the form of the
power model (Eq. (8)). This model is composed of three parts:
the viscosity of the uid, the speed (squared) and the dimensional
parameters of the mill grouped together into the shear volume.
The uid is considered a multiphase uid composed of water,
ore and media. The viscosity of this multiphase uid is found to
be a function of speed (shearing speed) similar to a shear thinning
Bingham plastic. One could postulate that viscosity of a particular
water/ore/media mix would be the same for any stirred mill and
the differences would only be found in the operating speed and
the impellor/chamber design. If after validation, this is found to
be the case, then one can propose the development of a viscome-
ter for the determination of stirred mill (multiphase) uid viscos-
ity independently of impellor/chamber congurations.
8. Conclusion
The goal of this paper was to propose and apply a simplied
stirred mill model that could then be used to assess the stirred mill
design space. To this end, a stirred mill model was proposed based
on the assumption that the main if not only mechanism of ore
breakage is through shear. The basis of this model is the uid
mechanics denition of shear stress which led to dening a stirred
mill power model as well as the establishment of a new measure of
mill performance: shear volume. An initial validation using pub-
15
lished data indicated that power dened as a function of shear cor-
related quite well with the measured power for the cases tested.
The proposed model divides the mill power calculation into
three distinct parts of physical, operating and uid parameters.
The shear volume, Vs, denes the physical arrangement of the
impellor and mill chamber. The mill operating parameter is de-
ned by the impellor rotation speed. The shear uid is described
by the viscosity. The form of this proposed model is relatively
simple.
Establishing a morphological chart to delimit the stirred mill
design space indicated that 24 design and operating conditions
can be assess using the established shear volume measure. The re-
sults indicated for the mill congurations tested that a change in
stirred mill liner design can potentially increase shear volume
and power from 14% to 290% as compared to smooth chamber
liners.
It is apparent that further research is required to validate the
power model based on the shear volume denition against indus-
trial power data as well as computational models of stirred milling
before it can be considered for use with condence to predict stir-
red mill power. Such validation will contribute to determining and
conrming how viscosity is affected by the media diameter, media
density, media size distribution, slurry rheology, slurry solid con-
tent, slurry density, etc. Undoubtedly, viscosity will also be found
to be a function of the granulometry which will require tying the
power model dened from shear stress with either and energy-size
relationship or a breakage kinetics relationship.
If successful, the use of this model could contribute to the
development of a better understanding of how different design
parameters work together to produce the power required in any
particular stirred milling operation.
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