Effect of pin tip velocity.pdfVIP

InTIERnlITIOmN J~lgIM. Of mlnERIIt PRO[ESSlnG ELSEVIER Int. J. Miner. Process. 43 (1995) 179-191 Effect of pin tip velocity, ball density and ball size on grinding kinetics in a stirred ball mill M.A. Ttiztin , B.K. Loveday h, A.L. Hinde a Mintek, Private Bag X3015, Randburg 2125, Transvaal, South Africa b Univei,sity of Natal, Chemical Engineering Department, King George VAvenue, Durban 4001, South Africa Received 23 February 1994 Abstract accepted after revision 15 February 1995Studies were made of the grinding kinetics of chromite ore in a stirred ball mill. Grinding tests were carded out using material in discrete size ranges ( - 53 + 38/zm and - 38 + 25/xm) and for material conforming to a natural spread of sizes ( - 100 /zm). Tests conducted on the discretely sized material were used to establish the breakage function for the ore. Specific selection function parameters were established by milling the - 100/xm material for various inputs of energy. The population-balance model derived from the test results yielded good agreement between the measured and fitted product size distributions. A relationship was established between the specific selection function and the pin tip velocity, ball density and ball size. 1. Introduction The linear, size-discretized population-balance model was first proposed more than 20 years ago. A considerable effort has been devoted to developing a form of grinding model for tumbling ball mills (Reid, 1965; Herbst and Fuerstenau, 1980; Austin et al., 1984); however, it has not been well extended to other comminution devices. Previous studies indicated that predictions of product size distribution could be obtained with the population- balance model at low levels of energy input (Sepulveda, 1981; Heim and Leszcyniecki, 1985; Cuumwense, 1992). However, the kinetics of the grinding became non-linear at high levels of energy input (exceeding 200 kWh/ t ) . In that case, a distributed strength model allowed