Numerical simulation of charge motion in ball mills — Lifter bar effect

Tumbling ball mills are a common comminution device in the mineral industry processing, wherein the particle size reduction is performed by action of the grinding media. Different forms of transverse motion in a rotating cylinder have been studied by many researchers. The aim of this paper was to study the transitional phenomena between cascading, cataracting and centrifuging motion. In order to observe these transitions, experiments were carried out in a tumbling mill of 300 mm diameter, and three sizes of chrome steel balls were used as grinding media. Each size of ball was employed in three different lengths of the mill with the purpose to investigate the end-walls effect in the behavior ball charge. The image analysis technique was employed to identify the transition regions. A high-speed camera with maximum speed of 2000 frames/s was used to record images. Experimental data showed it was not found the end-wall effects on the transitional behavior, and this effect can be assessed in numerical studies by analyze of the specularity coefficient.

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DEM modeling of ball mills with experimental validation: influence of contact parameters on charge motion and power draw

Computational Particle Mechanics ◽

10.1007/s40571-016-0125-4 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

pp. 53-67 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Dominik Boemer ◽

Jean-Philippe Ponthot

Keyword(s):

Experimental Validation ◽

Charge Motion ◽

Ball Mills ◽

Power Draw ◽

Contact Parameters

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INSTRUMENTED BALL DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT

Proceedings of the Canadian Engineering Education Association (CEEA) ◽

10.24908/pceea.v0i0.3851 ◽

2011 ◽

Author(s):

Suda Martins ◽

Wei Li ◽

Peter Radziszewski

Keyword(s):

Motion Simulation ◽

Charge Motion ◽

Ball Mills ◽

Processing Industry ◽

Tumbling Mills ◽

Simulation Results ◽

The Relationship ◽

Instrument Package ◽

Tumbling Mill ◽

Mill Charge

In the mineral processing industry, tumbling mills are used in the size reduction or comminution of ore to a target size distribution. As the tumbling mill environment is quite violent it is difficult to monitor mill charge motion let alone single ball or particle motion. An effort was initiated to investigate the development of an instrumented ball that includes data collection capabilities. A variety of sensors, including accelerometers and gyros, form the instrument package. The data collected by the instruments allow the calculation of a number of dynamic and kinematic quantities as a function of time. Using instrumented ball data, the error model of the instrument can be found. Finally, the importance of the data with respect to ball mills is discussed along with the relationship between the instrumented ball data and charge motion simulation results is discussed.

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