J. Ruzic, N. Stoimenov
Elsevier
IFAC-PapersOnLine
Motion and behavior of the particles during mechanical alloying in attritor mill were studied using EDEM® - Discrete Element Method software. The attempt was made to provide a small – scale simulation of mechanical alloying in the attritor mill. The particles and balls motion inside the mill were modeled using Hertz-Mindlin-no slip. The observed area was divided into ten sections in vertical direction, from the bottom to the top of the mill, in order to describe behavior of the particles. It was noticed that at the beginning of simulation of the mechanical alloying powders and balls are present in almost all sections evenly. With increasing the simulation time, smaller particles become more active in the sections closer to the bottom of the mill due to energy loss. On the other hand, bigger particles move up to 40% of mill height indicating lower energy level comparing to one at the beginning of the simulation but higher energy compared to particles with a smaller radius. It was noted that number of contacts between particles and balls depends on particle radius, while the bigger particle radius the higher number of contacts can be achieved.
attritor mill, Discrete element method, Mechanical alloying, Particle motion