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The future of comminution modelling

Article in International Journal of Mineral Processing · October 2007

DOI: 10.1016/j.minpro.2006.08.003

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 Int. J. Miner. Process. 84 (2007) 228 – 239
www.elsevier.com/locate/ijminpro

The future of comminution modelling

M.S. Powell a,⁎, R.D. Morrison b
a
Mineral Processing Research Unit, University of Cape Town, PB Rondebosch, 7700, South Africa
b
JKMRC, the University of Queensland, Indooroopilly, Queensland, 4068, Australia
Received 5 May 2006; received in revised form 17 August 2006; accepted 18 August 2006
Available online 4 October 2006

Abstract

The current status of the modelling of comminution processes is assessed in light of its capabilities and weaknesses. The
principles required for a major upgrade in modelling capability are proposed. The use of advanced computational techniques to
provide detailed information on the mechanical environment in comminution devices, linked in with correctly designed breakage
tests, underpin this development. These will lead us into more fundamentally correct models that include mineral liberation and can
be applied to the design of novel comminution devices.
© 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Comminution; Modelling; Computational methods; DEM; Breakage testing; Liberation

1. Introduction conditions, almost every engineering company will use

It is appropriate to consider the future of comminution
modelling in this special issue, as Prof. Peter King has
always been a leading thinker in this area. He has always
worked towards major advances in comminution models
and their potential applicability.
It is well past time to move on from the slide rules and
log tables that limited the comminution models to single-
number descriptions. The comminution design, opera-
tion, and modelling world has clung to these as though
they have holy significance. While these methods have
the virtue of simplicity, they have many shortcomings
when applied to real designs.
Perhaps an instructive parallel occurs in structural
engineering. Even though there are many analytical so-
lutions for ideal beams at ideal loading and constraint
⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +27 21 6503861; fax: +27 21 650 5501.
E-mail address: mpowell@chemeng.uct.ac.za (M.S. Powell).
0301-7516/$ - see front matter © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.minpro.2006.08.003
detailed finite element analysis to examine any design
under serious consideration for construction.
The underlying driver in both cases is the enormous
(and continuing) reduction in the real cost of compu-
tation. This drives more complex (and hopefully better)
measurement and models.
In a keynote address presented at the IMPC (King,
1993) king noted that “a fundamental understanding of
the basic micro-processes associated with the dynamics
of particulate systems – their transport and fracture – is
still lacking”. He followed this by stating “…the really
significant advances in comminution technology in the
forthcoming decade will only come from the exploitation
of basic fundamental understanding of the fracture
process to improve industrial comminution processes.”
King postulated that breakage in a complex system “…
can be synthesised from the universal single-particle
breakage functions once the patterns of energy distribu-
tion and stress application are known”. These key
 M.S. Powell, R.D. Morrison / Int. J. Miner. Process. 84 (2007) 228–239
statements demonstrate a conviction that the process
must be better understood in order to be better modelled.
2. Modelling status
The following is a brief overview of the status and
potential for development of comminution modelling.
This overview is not intended to be comprehensive or
complete, and the authors apologise in advance to the
many investigators whose work is not mentioned. The
motivation for this outline is to set the scene for pro-
spective areas for comminution research over the next
decade, not to provide a comprehensive summary of all
comminution models.
2.1. Power-based models
The wonderfully elegant Bond descriptions (Bond,
1952, 1961) are used and abused with little or no
consideration of their origins or intended use. Fred Bond
did a great job of correlating a well-controlled laboratory
test to the standard rod and ball mills of his time. He never
proposed these to cover all milling applications under the
sun. Bond always made very clear his key requirement/
assumption that the cumulative feed and product size
distributions plot as at least approximately parallel lines
on log–log or Rosin–Rammler axes. The need to modify
the Bond correlations is evident in the many variations
and ‘improvements’ developed over the years, to cover
larger mills, wider ball size ranges, changes to mill speed,
etc. Morrell (2004) has recently published on the weak-
ness of these improvements and provided the most up-
dated and reasonable modification to the Bond Technique
to improve its predictive capability.
The most notable downfall of the application of the
Bond method was its inappropriate application to SAG
mill design, with calamitous results with respect to mill
sizing. It was also found that the techniques fall apart
when applied to fine grinding devices, such as tower
mills. However, AG/SAG mills, crushers and many fine
grinding devices do not satisfy the Bond requirement of
parallel size distributions.
A number of new empirical testing and modelling
techniques, generally based on correlations between a
laboratory or pilot test and the full-scale application,
were developed in answer to the shortfalls of the Bond
technique by investigators such as MacPherson (1989)
and Starkey and Dobby (1996). Alternatively, a number
of standard laboratory tests, such as BBWI, BCWI, JK
DWT, etc., were correlated to the performance of
operating mills via empirical relationships. Designers
such as Siddall of Oreway Minerals (Siddall et al., 1996)
229
and Barratt (1989) successfully used this technique. The
correlations are usually restricted to in-house use, as they
carry the designer's intellectual property and business
value. The user has to basically have faith in the out-
comes—usually based on a track record of the designer.
The strength, and limitation, of these empirical tech-
niques is the credibility of their database. That is, the
correlation between measured production data and the
laboratory or pilot tests on the same ore type. The
strength is that if the design operation is in the same
regime as the database, then the predictions are generally
good. The limitation is if the new design is outside of the
database range, then predictions are likely to be un-
reliable. The weakness is that it is dangerous to use these
techniques to extrapolate to very new operating condi-
tions or ore types, let alone new types of applications.
2.2. Population balance-based models
As comminution modelling progressed in the 1970s,
and the investigators strove to describe a wider range of
equipment, a step change in the concept of modelling
was introduced. The fine work of investigators such as
Austin et al. (1984), Herbst and Fuerstenau (1980),
Whiten (1972), Morrell et al. (1993) (to mention but a
few) moved modelling a large step forward with the
introduction of the population balance model (PBM).
If we consider the notional contents of any commi-
nution device, we can reduce what is happening inside
the machine to three relationships. The first is the
proportion of a specified particle type which is selected
for breakage per unit of residence time. This is usually
called the selection function. The second is the degree to
which the selected particle type undergoes breakage.
This is called the appearance or breakage function. Note
that it relates to an event not to a time or rate. The product
of the selection function and the appearance function is
commonly called the breakage rate. The third relation-
ship describes the selection of particles which are to be
removed from the process. This is called the discharge
function. If it describes the proportion of a particular type
to be removed per unit time, then it is a discharge rate.
Many researchers use these terms interchangeably
without clear indication of which sense is intended, hence,
the level of confusion over the PBM. With careful defi-
nition, it is a quite general description and can be applied
to whatever types of particles we can distinguish—even
though the standard usage is particle size.
Breakage within a ball or rod mill is reasonably self
similar with size and the PBM can be used to generate
quite simple models of size reduction. Where appropri-
ate, various mixing conditions can also be applied to the
230 M.S. Powell, R.D. Morrison / Int. J. Miner. Process. 84 (2007) 228–239
mill contents. For a detailed comparison of PBM as
developed by researchers worldwide, see chapter 2 of
Napier-Munn et al. (1996). The PBM along with the
measured self-similarity of breakage with progressive
size reduction leads to the concept of a breakage and
selection function which underlies all the current models
and forms a powerful framework for a self-consistent
model. A key to this is the appearance function, that is, a
description of the size distribution of a particle once it is
broken. This is ore-specific, and an issue with applying
these models has always been obtaining the appearance
function of the ore under consideration. Exhaustive
laboratory test work by the above list of authors was used
to establish the breakage and appearance functions and
prove the validity of the theory. However, these cannot
be directly obtained in industrial test work. The appear-
ance function of coarser material was obtained through
pendulum breakage tests developed in the 1980s
(Narayanan, 1983, 1985) that were replaced in 1992 by
the simpler drop weight breakage tests, as tested and
implemented at the JKMRC (Napier-Munn et al., 1996).
The appearance function at fine sizes (less than a few
millimetres) can currently only be obtained through
laborious batch milling tests, so in reality, it is seldom
obtained.
In 1962 the Australian Mineral Industries Research
Association (AMIRA) P9 project was established, with
the JKMRC as the primary investigators, to pursue “The
optimisation of mineral processes by modelling and
simulation”. The project, which is ongoing to this date,
initiated an extensive research campaign that has made a
major contribution to the applied modelling of commi-
nution devices. A significant development was a new
model for SAG and AG mills developed by Leung et al.
(1987) and later extensively enhanced by Morrell and
Morrison (1989). An updated version of the model that
enhances the mechanistic nature of the model and is
intrinsically dynamic was developed by Valery (Valery
and Morrell, 1995; Valery, 1998). The dynamic model
has been applied in industry by Valery (1998), Schroder
et al. (1997), Schroder and Holtham (2004), and others.
Within the AMIRA P9 project, a number of other
devices were modelled, notably the crusher, the high-
pressure grinding roll, the tower mill, and a simplified ball
mill model (Napier-Munn et al., 1996). These models
built on the work of other researchers worldwide, who had
developed many of the principles, such as presented in
King (2001). All of these models build on the PBM and
breakage and selection functions, plus they utilise a semi-
mechanistic approach. The SAG/AG mill model utilises a
combined impact and abrasion appearance function that is
strongly particle size and energy dependent.
Whiten developed the ingenious t10 concept that
related the degree of breakage to the input energy, and
this led to the well-known A, b, and ta breakage param-
eters (Narayanan, 1983; Narayanan and Whiten, 1988;
Andersen and Napier-Munn, 1989; Napier-Munn et al.,
1996). The crusher model uses the same technique, but
without the abrasion component. This gives an excellent
prediction of size reduction, and a prediction of power
draw (Narayanan, 1985; Kojovic et al., 1997) based
directly on the drop weight test data, until packed bed
inter-particle crushing begins to dominate. The standard
crushing models utilise only a breakage and classifica-
tion function and assume that all materials left in the
chamber after selection for discharge are subject to the
same force and energy of breakage. This simplification
may be an additional reason for the breakdown of the
models under packed bed conditions.
An essential parameter for all of the comminution
models is the discharge function or the rate at which
material leaves the device. The general form of the equa-
tion is Pi = disi, where i refers to a particular size range, P
is the product, d the discharge function, and s the contents
of the device. The product from a device can be measured,
but as d and s are both unknowns, at least one has to be
measured to derive the other. This is feasible (but hard
work) in pilot applications, but generally not feasible in
industrial applications. A good strategy to overcome this
is to lump the discharge function into the breakage rate, as
implemented by Whiten in the ball mill model (Napier-
Munn et al., 1996). The PBM is then used to derive the
mill contents, s, by fitting a breakage rate for each size, ri,
to form the breakage function. For SAG mill modelling, it
is not feasible to hide the discharge function in the break-
age function, as the breakage is explicitly worked out as a
function of input energy. A simple discharge function was
derived by Leung et al. (1987), to account for grate
discharge. In fitting the SAG mill model, the discharge
function and breakage function are interdependent and
have to be resolved stepwise in an iterative manner. How-
ever, it is clear when working with these models that the
breakage rate function is not unique, as it is dependent
upon both s and d, which are interdependent, and it is
sensitive to changes in d. It has been found that this causes
major issues when scaling and modelling. The discharge
efficiency is dramatically different in pilot- and full-scale
SAG/AG mills, and sufficiently realistic scaling relation-
ships do not yet exist.
It can be seen that the major issues with fitting
breakage rates is that they are both ore and machine
dependent, are a function of interdependent variables, and
may well be an artifact of the modelling technique rather
than an estimate of the rates of breakage in a comminution
 M.S. Powell, R.D. Morrison / Int. J. Miner. Process. 84 (2007) 228–239
device. The breakage rates are used to absorb all the
unknowns, and then are used to scale between different
applications. Although this works remarkably well over
limited and controlled changes (as proven by the world-
wide success of this technique), one must always start
with an application that is closely similar in both ore type
and general dimensions to ensure successful design simu-
lations, or survey the application under consideration to
reliably model it.
High-pressure grinding rolls can be successfully
modelled by a combination of conventional crusher in
the pre-crushing zone, compressed bed breakage, and a
bypass of the bed. The simulation of the compressed bed
breakage is dependent upon scale-up from laboratory or
pilot tests, based on the equivalent operating pressures.
2.3. Energy-based models
A noticeable exception to the general PBM models
are the energy-based models that can be used in impact
crushers, such as the vertical or horizontal shaft impact
crushers. With these the energy of each impacting par-
ticle can be explicitly calculated and it is reasonable to
assume that the impacts are independent, and that each
particle receives a single impact. Utilising standard drop
weight test data the breakage product is well modelled in
an explicit manner (Napier-Munn et al., 1996). However,
the models cannot predict the product for more complex
devices, such as the Barmac crusher, that utilise inter-
particle impacts and the range of impact energies re-
quires more sophisticated models. These are well suited
to the computational techniques presented in the next
section.
2.4. Computationally intensive techniques
Many problems in science and engineering can be
considered as a series of small zones which are related to
one another by a set of (relatively) simple rules. The user
specifies a grid of points, appropriate boundary condi-
tions and a set of starting values. A similar calculation is
then carried out for each grid point in turn, the values are
updated and a test for convergence or stability is applied.
When the test is satisfied, the simulation is complete.
These methods can be made quite general but require
substantial computation.
Computational fluid dynamics and finite element
methods exactly fit this scheme. An interesting variation
is to use a particle as a point on a “moveable grid” and
subject it to motion according to its interactions with
surrounding particles and boundaries. A powerful tech-
nique based on this meshless method is the discrete
231
element method (DEM), as proposed by Cundall and
Strack (1979). This was applied for the first time to
comminution devices by Mishra (1991) and Mishra and
Rajamani (1994) in their pioneering work of modelling
charge motion in mills. Mishra (2003a) provides a useful
review of the techniques underlying the application of
DEM to milling.
A more recent variation is to consider a fluid as an
assemblage of pseudo-particles and this is called
smoothed particles hydrodynamics (SPH). SPH has
proved to be very useful for simulation of fluids which
change physical properties as a variable such as tem-
perature changes (Cleary, 1998a). The interaction rules
can also depend on the relationship between the fluid
particles. Hence, non-Newtonian fluids can also be mod-
elled with the interactions related to shear at any point in a
slurry. This provides a link between fluid transport and
fine particles in a slurry, using the slurry viscosity model
developed by (Shi and Napier-Munn, 1996, 2002).
Clearly the practical limit for these approaches is the
“cost of computation”. With computer power doubling
about every 18 months (“Moore's Law”) for at least the
last 20 years, these approaches have become much more
feasible although computational limits are still impor-
tant. It became feasible to undertake simple two-dimen-
sional (2D) DEM and CFD simulations in the late 1980s.
Because of Moore's Law these applications rapidly
gained in speed and size of feasible problem, with
application to 3D starting in the mid-1990s.
Both CFD and DEM can produce complex images as
output. Particles or cells can be coloured according to
velocity (or any other simulated variable) and even out-
put as animated images with suitable simulated lighting.
Because humans are well adapted to receiving high band
with visual information, there is a tendency – even
among researchers – to accept these images as “reality”.
Objective verification and testing of the predictions of
numerically intensive computer codes is absolutely
essential, an area in which Powell et al. have applied
considerable effort (Powell and Nurick, 1996a,b,c;
Govender et al., 2002, 2004).
Cleary et al. (2001) reported a detailed comparison
between measured mill charge position and particle
velocity in a scaled 600-mm-diameter AG mill. These
simulations used 250,000–300,000 particles for a
complete size-based description of the scaled charge
over a wide range of operating conditions. The results
demonstrated that 2D simulation with circles could only
predict over a very narrow range. 2D simulation with
“shaped” particles was an improvement but 3D simula-
tion with spheres predicted similar charge shapes and
particle velocities over a wide range of conditions. This
232 M.S. Powell, R.D. Morrison / Int. J. Miner. Process. 84 (2007) 228–239
was a surprising result as the experimental charge
consisted of crushed rock and was strongly non-
spherical. While this success in prediction is reassuring,
it does not imply that the collision models are in any way
“exact.” Further work is continuing to test simple
collisions in detail (Chandramohan and Powell, 2005).
An analysis of normal and shear (tangential) energy
distribution for spheres with the same size distribution
(from top size of 180 mm down to 20 mm) as an industrial
SAG mill was carried out by Cleary et al. (2001) The
results did produce a reasonable estimate of net power at
two different operating conditions. However, they did not
correlate in any obvious way with the JKMRC SAG
model estimates of impact and abrasion energy. More
interestingly, the predicted impact energy spectra con-
tained almost no impacts of sufficient energy to break
even a 20-mm particle in a single event according to
particle strength as measured by a JK Drop Weight test.
To examine this issue in more detail, a simulation of a
“Hardinge” style 6 ft by 2 ft (1.8 m by 0.6 m) pilot AG/
SAG was run for 350,000 particles to match a measured
size distribution from 150 mm to 5 mm. Within the
charge, collision histories were tracked for a selection of
particles within each size fraction. As for the large mill,
collisions which might produce even moderate breakage
in a single impact were still rare.
In applying the DEM outputs to predicting the break-
age product from mills, Datta and Rajamani (2002)
applied the impact energy spectra derived from 2D DEM
simulations to batch ball mill modelling. The authors
simplified the breakage environment by assuming that
the main form of energy transfer in a batch ball mill was
similar to the energy transfer achieved by dropping balls
onto a bed of four layers of particles. They reported that
the progeny of a small batch mill could be predicted from
the product of the bed breakage tests and the impact
energy distribution as predicted by the DEM simulation.
The authors suggested that shear could be added if a
suitable bed shear test could be used to characterise the
ore breakage. Mishra (2003b) reviews the application of
DEM to milling, which picks up no more advanced
practical applications to product size prediction than that
of Datta and Rajamani (2002). Most recently, Herbst
(2004) has published on the methodology of utilising the
outputs of the discrete element method (DEM) to en-
hance the modelling of SAG mills. These are still es-
sentially the same PBM methods, with an energy
distribution function and scaling relationship derived
from the DEM used to derive the breakage.
Djordjevic et al. (2003) have demonstrated that DEM
techniques are well suited to extend the explicit models
for impact crushers. DEM techniques have also been
applied to the modelling of stirred mills (Cleary et al.,
2006b; Sinnott et al., 2006) by assuming that all break-
age is due to shear and utilising the shear energies cal-
culated form the DEM.
2.5. Wear issues
DEM provides detailed estimates of the forces
between particles and the equipment surfaces. Hence,
wear rates based on various frictional interactions can be
used to estimate relative wear and evolution of key
components such as SAG mill lifters (Herbst and
Nordell, 2001; Cleary 1998b; Kalaya et al., 2005).
Wear should also be calibrated in terms of wear material
and ore, such as the procedure being developed by
Radziszewski (2001).
2.6. Mineral liberation
It has long been the holy grail of comminution mod-
elling to incorporate liberation, for after all, that is the
objective of comminuting the particles in mineral pro-
cessing. A number of investigators have contributed to
this goal, but the models have been limited by assump-
tions of random breakage, and are generally applicable to
a specific ore and process. Until the 1990s a major
limitation to developing liberation models was the limited
capability of collecting data, and this seriously hamstrung
this goal. With scanning electron microscope (SEM)
techniques becoming more accessible, this allowed the
acceleration of research in this area.
Peter King has been dedicated to this objective
throughout his long career. From pioneering work at the
University of the Witwatersrand, King (1979) wrote his
landmark paper on linking liberation and comminution
(King and Schneider, 1998). This paper tackles non-
random breakage through a generic approach within the
PBM framework. Six non-random breakage processes
are defined: selective phase breakage; differential break-
age; preferential breakage; liberation by detachment; and
boundary-region fracture. These are well defined in the
paper and are considered to be the most useful and rig-
orous definitions of the modes of non-random fracture.
In this work, it was demonstrated how to simplify the
general solution to non-random breakage and introduce
any of the six processes in a manageable manner. The
solution is bounded by the regions of feasible liberation
and particle size, as expressed in the Andrews–Mika
diagram. It is shown how this solution changes dra-
matically with the non-random breakage. Application of
the technique is tested on ores, with good correspondence
of outcomes. The power of this technique is that it can be
 M.S. Powell, R.D. Morrison / Int. J. Miner. Process. 84 (2007) 228–239
applied to any comminution model that is structured
within the PBM framework.
It is considered that this route represents the way
forward of incorporating liberation into comminution
modelling in a universally applicable manner. King and
Schneider do warn that “The mode of stress application
in the grinding mill can influence the liberation
characteristics of an ore”. That is, the mode of non-
random breakage is a function of breakage mode, such as
compression versus impact. So the next challenge lies in
linking the liberation modelling to breakage testing.
With the routine use of mineral liberation techniques
such as the JK-FEI-MLA (Cameron et al., 1998;
Guerney and Gu, 1999) and QemScan (Gottlieb et al.,
2000) becoming more common, the full evolution of
non-random breakage models is a realistic objective.
Although the liberation modelling shows promise it is
barely used. The PBM is structured to deal with size, and
the liberation outputs are tacked on top of the commi-
nution model outputs. The technique provides a limited
predictive capability so long as the breakage mode does
not vary, but essentially has to be recalibrated for each
new application.
2.7. Breakage testing
In a general sense, the current breakage testing tech-
niques are a simplified imitation of the major perceived
modes of breakage that occur in the comminution equip-
ment. Although useful, we must accept that they are
crude. Regardless of the actual modes in the equipment, a
correlation is developed with the equipment and integrat-
ed into the models. These correlations can be quite suc-
cessful, provided that they are used in the window over
which the correlation was developed. However, as the
window is widened, more and more factors are added and
the original vision of a simple correlation is lost. This is an
explicit indication that the test does not correlate with the
conditions in the equipment. The Bond Work Index and
Starkey Power Index are examples of this.
The JKMRC drop-weight test simulates impact
breakage and the associated abrasion test simulates low
stress abrasion. DEM simulation indicates that most likely
almost no breakage in an AG/SAG mill is due to single
impact breakage (Cleary and Morrison, 2004). It is also
clear that there is a wide range of abrasion that occurs at a
considerably higher stress than in the laboratory test. Thus,
even this well-used breakage test that is based on the
agreed major modes of breakage requires improvement.
The current testing techniques are seen as a major
limitation to the modelling progress, as they do not cor-
rectly reproduce the modes of breakage found in
233
comminution equipment and do not have the flexibility
to do so.
As a result of the outputs of DEM simulations, a
detailed investigation of incremental breakage is in
progress at the JKMRC (Whyte, 2005) and at the
University of Cape Town (Bbosa et al., 2006). Shi and
Kojovic (private communication, P9N AMIRA report 5)
have developed a new breakage testing technique that
can rapidly test a large sample of particles at accurate
energies over a wide range and incorporate measure-
ments of incremental breakage. This links in well with
the work on probability of breakage that Vogel and
Peukert (2003) developed and is currently being
modified to be incorporated into existing model struc-
tures by Shi and Kojovic (in press).
2.8. Model limitations
A major pitfall of the comminution model develop-
ment has been that each type of equipment has different
models, with different structures and limited overlap of
the key principles. Each new piece of equipment seems
to attract a new researcher with an all new model. This
means that advances in modelling techniques filter only
slowly across the board, and many research groups and
investigators are involved in incrementally updating the
plethora of models.
The current form of the models can take model outputs
to a point but no further. The models are essentially a
description of the output of the equipment, not of the
process. The PBM is not actually a model, it is a frame-
work that maintains mass integrity. It has turned out to be
a major and essential step in the advance of comminution
modelling, but does not describe the breakage process; it
merely keeps track of the product.
The authors are of the opinion that the modelled
breakage rate has no physical significance; rather, it is
merely a construct of the model structure and the as-
sumptions made regarding selection and discharge
functions. Those who have worked with these models
would have noted that strange breakage rates are derived,
especially at the extremes of size. For example, the
classic wave format of the SAG/AG mill breakage rate
curve gives an extremely high breakage rate for the
coarsest rocks, yet they are known to be reduced slowly
by abrasion. It is also apparent that the fitted rates are
strongly dependent upon the fitted discharge function for
a device. The breakage rates are used to absorb all
unknowns and inaccuracies of the models and hold both
equipment and ore information.
Power or energy input is not directly used in the
models. Although some models do predict a power draw,
234 M.S. Powell, R.D. Morrison / Int. J. Miner. Process. 84 (2007) 228–239
this is quite independent from the calculation of the
breakage product, which is driven by breakage and selec-
tion functions. Even SAG mill models that use an energy
type driver do not correlate this to the mill power draw.
No models truly incorporate liberation. Some useful
advances have been made in correlating liberation to the
degree of breakage, but these are always a tack-on, the
models do not intrinsically predict the liberation pro-
perties of the product particles. For models to have a
predictive capability – as opposed to a back-fitted cor-
relation – the mineralogical liberation information needs
to be a direct output of the breakage events in the com-
minution device. Other than the application to the batch
grinding equation, King and Schneider (1998), no cur-
rent models can accommodate this.
3. So where to from here?
The authors see the future of comminution modelling
taking a step change from empirical, single-number
models to
• mechanistically based models,
• driven by energy input,
• and the mechanism/particle interface,
• with distributed breakage functions,
• utilising available computational power,
• with mineralogical liberation integral to the models.
The models will model breakage as a result of simu-
lated interactions within the equipment, rather than as
equipment outputs. It will then be possible to apply the
models to any piece of equipment. The models will truly
separate ore and machine properties. They will not be
driven by breakage functions; they will instead be particle
based. Each particle will be subjected to a local collision
environment, that will determine what will happen to it.
The product of the equipment is the sum of the products
from all the individual breakage interactions.
4. How may this be achieved?
It is necessary to dissect the process. Measuring the
outcome of the pieces of equipment will never give the
full picture, as there are too many interacting processes.
It is necessary to understand and model the processes
independently and then assemble them into a compre-
hensive model. The outcomes can then be tested against
the equipment. This is a fundamental change in the
philosophy of modelling, where the equipment is not
used to develop the models—which is the intuitively
obvious route to follow.
The population balance (PB) will still be a critical
structure underlying all modelling, tracking the products
and ensuring the integrity of the outcomes, but will not
be a model. The PB will be used as a framework in
which the mechanistic models of the processes will be
housed. An excellent example of this exists in the
chemical engineering field of crystallisation, which has
both formation and breakage of particles, feed, and
product streams in a reactor (Hounslow et al., 2005).
Powell (2006) has proposed the development of a
Unified Comminution Model to achieve this goal.
4.1. Internal equipment mechanics
In moving to models that are based on the mechanics
of the equipment, it is clearly necessary to develop a
good understanding of the mechanical environment in-
side each comminution device. To achieve this, it is
necessary to measure, model, and simulate the mechan-
ics of particle motion in the devices. Computational
techniques are used to produce the simulated outputs,
and it is essential that these outputs are validated before
they are applied to comminution modelling. The particle
interactions can be used to derive the rate at which each
particle is hit, with what force, and by what. This is what
determines the damage and breakage of particles. The
simulation outcomes can be bundled into distributions
representing a history of the mechanical environment for
each class of particle. The classes are size, ore type,
density, mineralogy, degree of liberation, etc. This can
then yield a manageable volume of data that is used to
predict the rate of breakage of each class of particle in the
comminution device.
One of the more difficult areas in applying DEM to
real grinding processes is to predict the interaction
between fine ore particles and the grinding media (in
PBM terms this is the selection function). The authors are
of the opinion that this issue has not yet been satis-
factorily addressed. In wet mills this is linked with the
transport and slurry suspension of the particles. The
simplified contact models (e.g., spring and dashpot) are
sufficiently efficient numerically to enable simulations
with large numbers of particles to be carried out on
currently available high end desktop computers. How-
ever, these models provide at best a gross approximation
of what might happen in a collision where breakage
occurs. It may be necessary to implement independent
breakage detection and adjust the collision model ac-
cordingly. Some of the inferences made that are based on
DEM outputs may be more a consequence of simplified
collision models than the actual process. It is the opinion
of the authors that this whole area of contact and energy
 M.S. Powell, R.D. Morrison / Int. J. Miner. Process. 84 (2007) 228–239
transfer and breakage is a key research aspect in the
meaningful application of computational techniques to
prediction of the progeny of comminution devices.
4.2. Transport
An adequate description of the transport of the
particles through and out of the device is an essential
part of a model. This determines the residence time of
particles, and where they will reside and for how long in
the various regions in a device. This discharge rate
determines the limit to the feed rate of a device, so is the
key feed rate controller.
It is suggested that initially for slurry and air swept
devices the flow can be measured under realistic con-
ditions in laboratory tests, and these outputs fed into
mechanistic models of the flow environment for each
device. The more generic the laboratory tests, the wider
the applicability of the data. Appropriate mechanistic
models can then be used to customise the flow to par-
ticular pieces of equipment. Thus, it is proposed that the
development of these flow relationships should not be by
equipment type, e.g., grate discharge SAG mill, but by
flow mode. Thus, for an SAG mill, the modes would be
flow through the cascading mill charge, flow through the
grate holes, flow along pulp lifters, flow out the discharge
aperture, flow back through grate holes into the mill. The
flow characteristics of each mode are independently
studied and then combined through the use of a mecha-
nistic model. The same test results can then be applied to a
different piece of equipment, provided that the flow
modes are the same, by utilising a new mechanistic model
that describes the physical environment of that device.
In the longer term, the flow needs to be studied and
modelled in a fundamental manner so as to have a truly
predictive capability, such that it can be applied to new
types of devices. For this coupled particle–fluid compu-
tational techniques are required, such as smoothed particle
hydrodynamics (SPH), computational fluid dynamics
(CFD), or Lattice Boltzmann techniques linked with
DEM techniques. These techniques exist and are already
applied in some areas of research and industry (Potapov
et al., 2001), but require further development and testing,
and do have an extremely high computing power over-
head, that is, simulations currently take in the order of
weeks. Cleary et al. (2006a) have demonstrated its ap-
plication to milling.
For dry large particle applications, such as crushers,
the DEM techniques are adequate to simulate the flow
and discharge of the device.
For positive displacement devices, such as rolls and
HPGR crushers, no special transport function is required.
235
4.3. Breakage testing
The route to correct breakage testing techniques is to
test the breakage modes found in the equipment, and
under the correct range of forces and rates of inter-
action. A fine illustration of this is the HPGR, where
excellent scale-up is achieved from pilot to full scale,
as they can be operated at the same pressure. This is not
achievable for the cascading action in tumbling mills,
as laboratory mills have forces that are orders of mag-
nitude less than the full-scale mills. For some equip-
ment, a small-scale laboratory or pilot test that mimics
the full-scale equipment may be the best breakage
testing technique, provided that the realistic forces and
rates of interaction are achieved. But for most equip-
ment, this is not achievable, and the tests are locked
into being equipment specific.
The analysis of the mechanical environment in the
comminution equipment will inform the design of break-
age testing techniques. The testing techniques must cover
the modes of breakage and the interaction forces that are
found in the equipment. It is proposed that the tests
should measure the distribution of breakage products,
rather than reducing them to an over-smoothed average.
Hitting 20 apparently identical particles each with the
same force will produce 20 size distributions. Currently,
these are combined into one. However, breaking a single
particle does not produce an adequately defined progeny
distribution. Two different ore types may yield the same
average product size distribution, but if one ore is a lot
more variable in structure, it will give a far wider range of
distributions and, thus, in reality give a considerably
wider product size distribution than the more homoge-
nous ore. This has implications for classification, sliming,
oversize carry-over, and undoubtedly for liberation and
recovery.
Liberation should be measured as an integral part of
the breakage tests. This will reveal the liberation as a
function of the breakage mode and the energy/force
environment. The outcomes are only likely to be usefully
accurate for properly designed breakage tests. That is,
liberation is usually a function of how you got there, not
just the final product size distribution, as discussed by
King and Schneider (1998). To successfully incorpor-
ate liberation information into the breakage testing out-
puts, fast and relatively cheap analysis techniques are
required—not a strong point of traditional liberation analy-
sis, although it is undoubtedly moving in that direction with
systems like the JK-FEI MLA and QemScan. It is
suggested that techniques such as X-ray micro-tomogra-
phy, that can deal with particles down to about 100 μm in
size, will play a central role. These combined with MLA
236 M.S. Powell, R.D. Morrison / Int. J. Miner. Process. 84 (2007) 228–239
and assaying can be used to reveal the liberation at finer
sizes.
With the development of more sophisticated breakage
tests, sight must not be lost of the need for simple and
cheap indicator tests that can be used to check for ore
variability and indicate where more detailed tests are
required in an ore body.
The involvement of geologists and mineralogists
(especially the new breed of process mineralogists) to
quantitatively correlate mineralogical variation in the ore
body to its breakage and liberation properties is an
essential long-term goal. The emergence of the geo-
metallurgist, who will make extensive use of process
mineralogy, should fulfil the position of the ‘deposit to
product’ integrator.
The fundamental modelling of breakage is a whole
new approach that will hopefully enter in the modelling
techniques that follow this next major step on improving
comminution modelling. While these fundamental mod-
els are being developed, they can be expected to provide
improved understanding to the breakage process and this
knowledge will supplement and bolster the testing and
modelling techniques.
4.4. Non-mechanical breakage
This applies to techniques such as pulsed microwave
heating, which hold great promise as comminution
enhancing devices. It is proposed that the new higher
quality breakage tests can be applied to the ores pre- and
post-such treatment. The breakage tests would then
provide an accurate measure of the resultant effect of
the treatment, and this can be related to the modes of
breakage. The resultant predictions can then be integrated
into the mechanical environment, using the new commi-
nution models.
The modelling of these non-mechanical modes of
breakage can start with empirical relationships, but the
true modelling is a whole new arena of materials fracture
modelling.
4.5. Mine-to-mill
Comminution starts at the rock face; thus, comminu-
tion modelling should be linked to the mining technique.
Part of the requirement to achieve this is to develop a
common language and purpose between the two currently
segregated fields of application and research. Although
some progress has been made in this arena, with excellent
industrial success, this is undoubtedly an area that requires
considerable input to achieve a properly integrated
approach.
5. Where will the new generation of models take us?
A step change in capability will be the fully predictive
structure of the models; this means that novel devices can
be designed and trialled through thorough and meaningful
simulation prior to any laboratory work. The concept of
the Virtual Comminution Device (VCM) has been pro-
posed by Morrison to facilitate the rapid prototype devel-
opment of new equipment and concepts in comminution
design. The VCM should also allow the optimisation of
existing designs in terms of the desired modes of break-
age, as determined by improved understanding of break-
age and liberation, instead of merely aiming to minimise
wear, correct what are clearly poor operation practices, or
identify circuit constraints.
This technology will be linked into predictive wear
modelling of liners, which will present a tremendous
opportunity to save on the cost of wear components. But
well beyond this, a prediction of the evolution of wear
profiles will enable the design to be based on maximising
the operating efficiency over the complete wear cycle of
liners.
With such sensitivity to breakage modes and with
liberation integrated into the models, they will be ideally
positioned to link to up- and downstream integrated
optimisation.
Modelling of liberation is seen as one of the most
important aspects of the step change in modelling capa-
bility—noting that it will be integral to the predictive
capabilities of the models, not a post-modelling add-on.
Additionally, the capability of predicting other properties,
such as micro-cracking and surface state, that can be
linked to downstream recovery processes can readily be
incorporated into the model structure, provided the re-
quired information is modelled or fitted as a sub-process.
As the models will be capable of dealing with in-
dividual particle classes, they will intrinsically cope with
widely varying ore blends, and the consequences of
blending.
Integrated circuit design can become a reality. With
liberation linked to the recovery process the modelling
objective can be to design the optimal circuit for
recovery—rather than size reduction.
Integral power prediction in the models will ensure
that the specific power consumptions are a consistent
and meaningful output.
The intrinsic dynamic nature of the models will assist
in the design of the most operable and stable circuit
configurations, with the capability of avoiding bottle
necks; simulating realistic variations in feed type, size,
and blend; and simulating the effect of downtime on
various sections of the circuit.
 M.S. Powell, R.D. Morrison / Int. J. Miner. Process. 84 (2007) 228–239
Faster commissioning can be obtained through more
accurate design and a better understanding of the op-
erating window and variation of the circuit. This can
ensure that the circuit is ramped up to full capacity far
more rapidly, leading to lower capital and operating costs.
6. Conclusions
The proposed direction for the future of comminution
modelling may appear rather ambitious, but it has both
short-term benefits in potential to improve existing mod-
els and long-term benefits. Rather than the short-term
view of models with limited use and life span, the
research can build in a coherent and consistent direction
that brings continuous improvement and the long-term
objective of a step-change in modelling capability. The
massive increase in computing power over the past de-
cade, and extending into the future, and the enormous
improvement in measurement techniques, such as micro-
tomography and quantitative mineral liberation analysis,
are the tools that can enable such an approach.
In order to make a major contribution to mineral
processing, new comminution models must model the
process and not the outcome of specific equipment. The
breakage testing techniques must be able to characterise
the breakage modes found in comminution equipment
and incorporate liberation in the analysis of the
products, with both breakage and liberation related to
the mode of breakage. Utilising computational techni-
ques to simulate the mechanical breakage environment,
the models will incorporate the breakage test outputs to
predict product size distribution and liberation. Mech-
anistic transport models will complete the simulations.
The models will be able to predict the performance of
novel devices by simulating the mechanical environment
with computational techniques and then simulating the
breakage and transport outputs. They will enable the
exploration of the most energy efficient ore reduction
route integrated with the optimal liberation route. To
obtain full benefit from this technique the classification
modelling must come up to speed along the same lines,
and the models of the recovery processes need to be able
to link into the liberation data.
Right now, over 80% of this is achievable with current
modelling and analytical techniques and the authors feel
that computational techniques are advancing rapidly and
will soon be able to produce adequate data resolution,
further enhanced by constant improvements in comput-
ing power.
Currently, it is the basics not the advanced modelling
that is lagging in development. Inadequate ore breakage
testing techniques are seen as the major limitation to
237
major progress in comminution modelling. It is imper-
ative that in this endeavour, we researchers take full
advantage of new measurement techniques, such as fast
and routine MLA analysis, and tomographic analysis of
mineral structure, fracture, and liberation in coarser
particles. As researchers we are also obliged to use the
enormously improved computational power that is ever
becoming available, to better understand the process—
and to not delude ourselves with pretty pictures that may
only reinforce our existing preconceptions.
King (1993) rounds off his visionary paper with the
conclusion that “… it will be the application of very
fundamental physical principles that is likely to bring the
major advances in comminution modelling”. The
progress may not have been as significant as he hoped
in the decade since then, but it is undoubtedly in that
direction. It is proposed that a concerted effort by com-
minution researchers in a common direction should
ensure that the dream of the new comminution models is
brought to fruition in the next decade.
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