Modeling breakage environment in tumbling mills using DEM and analyzing the outputs
AUTHOR(S)
J. Favier, M.S. Powell, N.S. Weerasekara, S. Cole
PUBLISHER
University of London
SOURCE
DEM5: The Fifth International Conference on Discrete Element Methods
YEAR
ABSTRACT
The present state of the art Discrete Element Method (DEM) is quite capable of predicting the mechanical environment in full 3D for a given mill configuration. A full 3D simulation providing a comprehensive prediction of bulk particle dynamics in a grinding mill is now possible using the latest commercial DEM software tools.These DEM codes provide a range of information of individual particle impact histories, such as kinetic energy at the time of collision, normal and tangential collision energy, contact angle, particle velocities, force, impulse, etc. The ability to run a large number of DEM simulations and data analysis provides the opportunity to resolve the breakage environment in mills. This provides breakage models such as the Unified Comminution Model (UCM) with a full range of information needed on the mill mechanical environment for a wide range of mill operating conditions and information need for liner wear modelling. Furthermore, this information provides an insight into the mechanics and drivers of milling that in itself can be used in improving mill design and operation.Therefore, in this work an attempt is being made to explore the breakage environment in mills using DEM techniques, and how these techniques may be expanded to provide even more useful data for mill and comminution device modelling.
KEYWORDS
breakage, comminution, Mill