Minerals Beneficiation - The Zero Order Production of Fine Sizes in Comminution and Its Implications in Simulation

This paper examines the zero order production phenomenon in the context of the size discretized batch grinding model. A restrictive interrelationship between the selection and breakage parameters of the model, which is mathematically sufficient to ensure zero order behavior, is delineated. Based on this interrelationship, a scheme is developed for predicting the values of the selection and breakage parameters for all size fractions from a minimum of experimental data. To test this scheme, dolomite was ground in a laboratory batch ball mill. Successful simulation of the comminution behavior of this system was achieved using the batch grinding model with the parameter values obtained from the proposed scheme. Historically, a preponderance of comminution research has centered on attempts to relate breakage energy to the performance of comminution machines. Concomitantly, grinding data were interpreted almost exclusively in terms of inherently empirical energy-size reduction relationships1-3 or "laws of comminution"4- 6 which were based on highly oversimplified descriptions of the fracture process. In some instances, these relationships provide a crude basis for the correlation of experimental data, but, invariably, this approach is inadequate for meaningful process simulation. The control and optimum design of comminution circuits require a mathematical model capable of depicting the size reduction behavior of every size fraction for grinding conditions of technological importance. Energy-size relationships do not provide this detailed information. For example, an energy-size analysis for batch ball-milled dolomite has recently been completed in the authors' laboratories.7 This analysis provided a satisfactory correlation between the hypothetical size modulus, which characterizes only the finer portion of the size distribution, and the input energy. However, this relation did not constitute an adequate description of the complete system. In general, one of two distinct viewpoints toward simulation has been adopted in recent comminution research. The first approach focuses on the fracture of single mineral specimens, with the essential aim of representing the over-all process in terms of the breakage characteristics of individual particles and the characteristics of the stress field which the particles experience within the particular size reduction device. As illustrated by Harris's review,' the actual incorporation of single-specimen fracture information into a description of the behavior of a multiparticle comminution system has seldom been attempted. The only model to accomplish this incorporation was the one developed by Schönert.8 The Schonert model treats single-passage grinding machines in terms of a distribution of effective loads acting on a particle, a distribution of required particle breakage energies, and the breakage product distribution. However, the use of single-particle fracture behavior to derive models of the size reduction process is at present limited to machines in which the particle residence time is approximately equal to the time required to apply stress. As a result, Schönert's analysis cannot be used to advantage to simulate the complex environment which prevails within a tumbling mill. For multiple-passage systems a second approach to the description of comminution processes has been more fruitful. This approach entails the formulation of a mathematical model which is phenomenological in nature in that it lumps together the entire spectrum of stress-application events which prevail in a system under a given set of operating conditions. The appropriately defined average of these individual events is then considered to characterize the over-all breakage properties of the device. Thus, to analyze the performance of a tumbling mill, the manner in which the particles of a particular size (or size fraction) are stressed need not be distinguished. Instead, a single parameter is assumed to represent the resistance of that size to fracture, given the average grinding environment which exists in the mill. The isolation of such a parameter and a related set of quantities, which constitute the breakage product size distribution for the average event in this size fraction, allows the formulation of physically meaningful descriptive equations capable of yielding precise and detailed information for simulation.