Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
a,*
, Rob Morrison
CSIRO Mathematical and Information Sciences, Private Bag 33, Clayton, Vic 3169, Australia
Julius Kruttschnitt Mineral Research Centre, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
Received 7 June 2006; accepted 8 August 2006
Abstract
Stirred mills are becoming increasingly used for ne and ultra-ne grinding. This technology is still poorly understood when used in
the mineral processing context. This makes process optimisation of such devices problematic. 3D DEM simulations of the ow of grinding media in pilot scale tower mills and pin mills are carried out in order to investigate the relative performance of these stirred mills.
Media ow patterns and energy absorption rates and distributions are analysed here. In the second part of this paper, coherent ow
structures, equipment wear and mixing and transport eciency are analysed.
2006 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Keywords: Comminution; Discrete element modelling; Ultra-ne grinding; Breakage
1. Introduction
The use of stirred media mills in mineral processing is
increasing. In the last 15 years, the discovery of more complex, ne-grained ores containing base and precious metal
deposits has necessitated greater degrees of size reduction.
Liberation of these metals typically demands grinding to less
than 10 lm. Traditional ball mills cease to be economically
viable below 30 lm, whereas stirred mills have much higher
energy eciency in this size range and are increasingly being
deployed for ultra-ne grinding (<10 lm) applications.
In contrast to tumbling mills, models for understanding
stirred mill design and process optimisation (and even the
basic concepts of ne grinding) have not yet matured. A
lab scale study of variables aecting ne grinding in vertically stirred mills has been made by Jankovic (2003). Weller et al. (2000) used solid and liquid tracers to investigate
Corresponding author. Tel.: +61 3 9545 8005; fax: +61 3 9545 8080.
E-mail address: Paul.Cleary@csiro.au (P.W. Cleary).
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Rated power
Angular speed (used here)
Chamber volume
Stirrer
Chamber diameter
Chamber height
Stirrer diameter
Stirrer shaft diameter
Pitch
Pin diameter
Pin radial length
Pin spacing (single column)
Tower mill
Pin mill
1.5 kW
100 rpm
39 L
Double helical steel screw
0.24 m
1.2 m
0.14 m
0.04 m
0.09 m
/
/
/
7.5 kW
250 rpm
36 L
Steel pins
0.28 m
0.79 m
0.20 m
0.1 m
/
0.023 m
0.10 m
0.10 m
Table 1
A list of typical stirred mills currently being used in the mineral processing industry
Stirred mill
Company
Orientation
Agitator type
Tower mill
Vertimill
Isamill
Sala agitated mill (SAM mill)
Detritor (Stirred media mill)
Kubota, Japan
Metso minerals
Xstrata, Australia
Metso minerals
Metso minerals (previously English China Clays)
Vertical
Vertical
Horizontal
Vertical
Vertical
Helical screw
Helical screw
Rotor discs
Pins
Lower speed impeller
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small size variation of 5% to approximate the size variations in a real ball assembly. The specic gravity of the
media is the same for both mills at 2.7. The tower mill
has the higher charge mass, but the ner media size means
that the pin mill has more than double the number of balls
in the pin mill. The tower mill media packs much better
giving a bulk density that is around 15% higher than for
the pin mill because of the much broader size distribution.
The average coordination number (or number of particles
in contact) of the tower mill media is also around 30%
higher than that of the pin mill meaning that this charge
will be stronger and relatively more dicult to shear. A
coecient of restitution of 0.3 and a friction coecient of
0.5 have been used for ballball and ballliner collisions.
In studying the dynamics of media motion in these mills
using DEM, a variety of data are available to us for
analysis:
Fig. 1. 3D CAD pictures of the tower mill (left) and the pin mill (right).
The mill shell is transparent in order to enable visibility of the agitator in
each mill.
Number of particles
Particle density
Total particle mass
Spherical particle size
Avg # near-neighbours
Charge height (dilated)
Average bulk density
Duration of simulation
Tower mill
Pin mill
29 870
2700 kg/m3
58.4 kg
14 + 9 mm
13.35
0.98 m
1194 kg/m3
20 s (33 rev)
61 625
2700 kg/m3
44.6 kg
8 mm 5%
10.05
0.62 m
1053 kg/m3
14 s (58 rev)
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
(6)
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Fig. 2. Media distribution shown in clipped sections from each mill, (a) tower mill at t = 10 s coloured by speed with red being 0.5 m/s, (b) tower mill at
t = 10 s coloured by axial speed Vz with red being 0.2 m/s upwards and dark blue 0.2 m/s downward, and (c) pin mill coloured by speed with red being
1.5 m/s.
Near the base of the mill it has a small but meaningful negative value indicating that the particles are owing from
near the outer mill chamber radially inwards towards the
central screw. Near the free surface the radial velocity
becomes signicantly positive as particles ow back from
around the screw, outwards towards the outer mill shell.
The standard deviation is a measure of the variability of
the velocity from its means and of the extent of uctuations
in the ow. The standard deviation is much larger than the
peak values of the radial velocity and is constant with
height. The bounding envelope, dened by the limits of
the vertical lines, indicates a region of phase space which
is symmetric around zero that the particle radial velocities
are likely to occupy. There is no meaningful mean radial
velocity at any radius. This means that in any vertical column of particles there is equal radial movement in both
positive and negative directions. The variability of the
instantaneous radial velocity (which when averaged has a
zero mean) changes with radius. The variability is smaller
inside the screw but it increases when moving out past the
outer edge of the screw and then nally declines as the wall
chamber is approached. This indicates that the outside of
the screw not only makes the largest contribution to driving
the ow but also drives the uctuations in the ow.
The mean tangential velocity (or swirl generated by the
screw) is low at the base of the mill and increases steadily
0.05
0.05
0
0
0.5
Vr (m/s)
0.1
Vr (m/s)
0.1
-0.05
0
0
0.1
0.15
-0.1
Height (m)
0.2
0
0
0.5
-0.2
Vtang (m/s)
Vtang (m/s)
0.05
-0.05
-0.1
-0.4
-0.1
0.05
0.1
0.15
-0.2
-0.3
-0.4
-0.5
Height (m)
0.2
0.2
0.1
0.1
0
0
0.5
-0.1
Vz (m/s)
Vz (m/s)
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0
0
0.05
0.1
0.15
-0.1
-0.2
-0.2
Height (m)
Fig. 3. One dimensional proles of media velocity (Vr, Vtang, Vz) versus mill height and radius for the tower mill at t = 10 s. Condence limits of one
standard deviation are included to indicate the variance in velocity. The radius of the screw is 0.07 m and the chamber radius is 0.12 m.
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0.4
0.2
0.2
0.1
0
0.0
-0.2
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
Vr (m/s)
Vr (m/s)
0
0.00
-0.1
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
-0.8
Vtang (m/s)
Vtang (m/s)
0.4
-1.2
0
0.00
-0.4
0.05
0.10
0.15
-0.8
-1.2
-1.6
-1.6
Radius (m)
Height (m)
0.4
0.4
0.2
0.2
0.2
0.4
-0.4
0.6
0.8
Vz (m/s)
Vz (m/s)
0.15
Radius (m)
Height (m)
0
0.0
-0.2
0.10
-0.2
-0.4
0
0.0
-0.4
0.05
0
0.00
-0.2
0.05
0.10
0.15
-0.4
Height (m)
Radius (m)
Fig. 4. One dimensional proles of media velocity (Vr, Vtang, Vz) versus mill height and radius for the pin mill at t = 14 s. Condence limits of one
standard deviation are included to indicate the variance in velocity. The radius of the stirrer is 0.1 m and the chamber radius is 0.14 m.
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Fig. 5. Media are coloured by their energy absorption rates (left) tower
mill results at t = 10 s and (right) pin mill results at t = 14 s; (top) normal
energy absorption rate with peak values of 5 and 20 mW, respectively, and
(bottom) shear component with peaks of 20 and 85 mW.
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wider with increasing depth into the bed. The action of the
pins is substantially dierent to that of the screw and the
mechanism for transferring energy to the bed is also dierent.
Shear energy absorption is distributed relatively uniformly with depth in the tower mill. The band of high shear
energies appears in the annular region starting just inside
the outer radius of the screw and extending half way out
to the walls of the mill chamber. This becomes slightly
broader with increasing height in the bed. This is similar
to the velocity distribution shown in Fig. 2a. The average
shear energy absorption rates appear to be a factor of 3
to 4 times higher than for the normal component for this
mill, meaning the comminution will be dominated by attrition and abrasion.
The pin mill has a shear energy absorption pattern that
is strongly concentrated in the lowest regions of the mill.
The normal energy component is again quite similar to that
of the shear energy. The highest energy absorption rates
occur around the base plate and around the lowest layer
of pins. It then decreases strongly with increasing height
in the bed. The average shear energies are again about a
factor of four higher than the normal energy levels, indicat-
4.0
2.0
0.0
0
0.5
4.0
2.0
0.0
0
0.05
20.0
15.0
10.0
5.0
0.0
0
0.5
15.0
10.0
5.0
0.0
0
20.0
15.0
10.0
5.0
0.0
Height (m)
0.05
0.1
0.15
Height (m)
0.5
0.15
20.0
-5.0
0.1
Height (m)
20.0
15.0
10.0
5.0
0.0
0
0.05
0.1
0.15
Fig. 6. One dimensional proles of media energy absorption rates versus mill height and radius for the tower mill collected over only two revolutions when
in steady state. Condence limits of one standard deviation are included to indicate the variance in velocity. The radius of the screw is 0.07 m and the
chamber radius is 0.12 m.
20
15
10
5
0
0.0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
20
15
10
5
0
0.00
100
80
60
40
20
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
60
40
20
Height (m)
0.6
0.8
80
0.4
0.15
80
60
40
20
0
0.00
0.05
0.10
0.15
Radius (m)
100
0.2
0.10
100
Height (m)
0
0.0
0.05
Radius (m)
Rate of Shear E Abs (mW)
Height (m)
0
0.0
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100
80
60
40
20
0
0.00
0.05
0.10
0.15
Radius (m)
Fig. 7. One dimensional proles of media energy absorption rates versus mill height and radius for the pin mill over 14 s. Condence limits of one
standard deviation are included to indicate the variance in velocity. Note that the radius of the stirrer is 0.1 m and the chamber radius is 0.14 m.
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Fig. 8. Collisional energy spectra for each mill plotted as a function of collision frequency. Top picture shows all collisions; middle picture shows media
media collisions only; and bottom picture shows mediaboundary collisions (whether with mill wall or agitator). Each picture contains the total, normal
and shear components for comparison. The vertical line locates the modal peak for the total energy.
Table 4
Modal peak values for energy loss spectra for mediamedia and media
liner interactions in terms of collision frequency
Mediamedia energy
dissipation (lJ)
Tower mill
Pin mill
Medialiner energy
dissipation (lJ)
Normal
Shear
Total
Normal
Shear
Total
6
10
15
20
20
35
5
10
15
30
20
50
The values for both mills are presented here. The modal values for the pin
mill occur at higher energies than for the tower mill.
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3. The modal peaks of the total energy in the pin mill are
around double that of the tower mill for mediamedia
collisions and around 2.5 times higher for medialiner
collisions. In the pin mill the particles have on average
around 0.3 of the mass of the particles in the tower mill
(since the media is smaller) but have 2.5 times the speed
because of the higher impeller rotation speed. This
means that the average kinetic energy of the particles
in the pin mill is around 1.85 times higher than for the
tower mill. This is quite close to the observed dierence
in scaling of the modal peaks of the energy dissipation
spectra. Broadly, this suggests that the energy spectra
will scale with the masses of the particles and the square
of the rotation speed.
Fig. 9. Collisional energy spectra for each mill plotted as a function of energy dissipation rate. Top picture shows all collisions; middle picture shows
mediamedia collisions only; and bottom picture shows mediaboundary collisions (whether with mill wall or agitator). Each picture contains the total,
normal and shear components for comparison. The vertical line locates the modal peak for the total energy.
Tower mill
Pin mill
Normal
Shear
Total
Normal
Shear
Total
30
60
150
300
150
300
40
100
300
600
300
600
The values for each mill are presented here for their normal, shear and
total energy components. The modal values for the pin mill occur at higher
energies than for the tower mill.
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