Minerals Engineering 19 (2006) 13571361 This article is also available online at: www.elsevier.

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Eects of grinding media shapes on load behaviour and mill power in a dry ball mill
N.S. Lameck *, K.K. Kiangi, M.H. Moys
School of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, Johannesburg, WITS 2050, South Africa Received 31 August 2005; accepted 26 January 2006 Available online 20 March 2006

Abstract Little attention has been given to the study of grinding media shapes and how they aect load behaviour and power draw in grinding mills. To a large extent the focus has been on how grinding media shapes aect milling kinetics in terms of specic rate of breakage and breakage distribution parameterisation. This study investigated the eects of three media shapes (cylpebs, spherical and worn balls) on load behaviour and mill power draw at various mill speeds and load lling. An inductive proximity probe was used to determine the load orientation of the grinding media charge while a load beam enabled measurement of power draw. The variations in toe and shoulder positions among media shapes were observed. This was also reected in the power draw. The power increases to a maximum with increasing mill speed for all media shapes. The maximum power draw was reached at dierent mill speeds for the three studied media shapes. 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Grinding; Comminution; Power; Grinding media

1. Introduction Studying the comminution processes and understanding dierent parameters that aect it has increasingly became of interest to many researchers in the eld of mineral processing. Milling kinetics (Austin et al., 1984; Herbst and Lo, 1989), load behaviour (Liddell and Moys, 1988; Powell and Nurick, 1996a,b,c; van Nierop and Moys, 1997; Dong and Moys, 2003) and mill power (Yildirim et al., 1998; Morrell, 1993) have been studied as functions of media size, feed particle size distribution, fraction of mill lled with balls and powder, mill diameter, mill speed and other variables aecting them. Load behaviour as an additional mill control parameter is an important aspect because of the relation between the variation of mill power with operating parameters (Austin

Corresponding author. Tel.: +27 11 717 7558; fax: +27 11 403 1471. E-mail address: nlameck@prme.wits.ac.za (N.S. Lameck).

et al., 1984) and its impacts on mill control. This necessitates the need to study various parameters that aect the load behaviour due to the benets that would come about not only for control purposes but also for economical operation of the mill. More importantly the laws of motion that govern the load behaviour do not change with size thus scaling up from pilot to industrial scale mills does not aect the load motion. Grinding media directly aect the load behaviour and consequently the operations of industrial mills in terms of product size, energy consumption and grinding costs. Size and shape distribution of the originally spherical balls changes continuously as a result of impact breakage and due to dierent wear mechanisms taking place inside the ball mills. The wearing and breakage produce mostly smooth, non-spherical ball shapes, some characterised by exposed cavities or gross porosity holes (Vermeulen and Howat, 1989). The movements of these irregularly shaped components are believed to dier signicantly from those of larger, more rounded components. Spherical media are

0892-6875/$ - see front matter 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.mineng.2006.01.005

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also associated with high foundry production costs in comparison with other shapes that can be produced. An avenue of using alternate media shapes (cylpebs, conipebs and boulpebs) over spherical balls brings about various advantages such as lower foundry production costs, minimum porosity produced on casting and an expected increase in area, linear and point contact which the media make with each other (Cloos, 1989). It is long believed that a load comprised of a dierent media shape other than spherical balls might inuence the performance of a tumbling mill through variations in load behaviour, charge segregation and power drawn by the mill as well as the breakage kinetics. The extent of this inuence has not yet been established. Even with the very little done toward studying media shape eects (Herbst and Lo, 1989; Yildirim et al., 1998; Shi, 2004), all eorts have exclusively been focused on breakage rate, ignoring other parameters dening mill performance such as load behaviour and mill power. This paper investigates the inuence of dierent media shapes on the load behaviour and power drawn by the mill as a function of mill lling and speed. The charge orientation is an important aspect of load behaviour and is generally accepted to assume a quartermoon shaped prole (depending on load volume) with toe and shoulder positions being key parameters. These are dened, respectively, as the angular position where the lifters/liner comes into contact with the charge and where the charge departs from the liners, respectively. 2. Experimental equipment and method Experiments were conducted in 0.54 m-internal diameter mill with 0.4 m length. The internal mill length was adjusted to 100 mm using a movable diaphragm. The mill is driven by a 2.5 kW variable speed motor mounted in a mill rig, which has been described previously (Moys et al., 1996). Twelve 20 mm high trapezoidal lifters with 45 face angle and 50 mm base width were inserted inside the mill. An inductive probe inserted at 50 mm from the mill front end through the mill shell between two lifters was used to obtain the charge position (Kiangi and Moys, 2006). The probe was able to detect any metal present within the range of 38 mm from its sensing face. The inductive probe installation has been described (Kiangi and Moys, 2006). The inductive probe enabled the measurement of data used to obtain the load orientation. A signal (produced by a light emitting diode (LED) and a phototransistor) when the mill passes a mirror xed at the 12 oclock position served as a reference point. All the signals were sent through an interface to a data acquisition computer. A video camera was also used to record tumbling charge behaviour inside the mill through a transparent front end plate. Three types of media were available to study the eect of media shape on load behaviour and power; spherical

media, cylpebs and worn balls. The worn media were obtained from an industrial dry ball mill used by ESKOM (South Africa power utility) to produce pulverized fuel following an experiment done to characterise ball size and shape distribution (Lameck, 2005). Material properties such as coecient of friction, size and shape (Zhou et al., 2002) aect media packing. With this fact in consideration Eq. (1) was used to calculate the spherical ball charge mass at 15%, 20% and 25% lling levels. The voidage of 0.4 was used in calculating spherical balls mass. The charge mass involving cylpebs and worn balls were obtained as respective equivalent weight to that of spherical balls. The respective percent lling levels for cylpebs were 14.6, 19.5 and 24.3 at the voidage of 0.36 (0.02) and that of worn balls at 0.37 (0.01) voidage were 14.2, 18.9 and 23.6. The brackets show the standard deviations of the measured media voidage. This implies that media shapes were compared based on the same mass criterion. Measurements were performed with speeds ranging from 20% to 90% of critical speed. Balls between 22.4 and 26.5 mm size class for spheres and worn balls and 24 22 mm (l d) for cylpebs were used. Charge mass kg 0:6J pD2 inside LqBall 1 4 where J is the load volume as a fraction of the mill volume, and L is the internal mill length. 2.1. Description of load position The patterns of the signals obtained over one mill revolution from the inductive probe are shown in Fig. 1 for the three media shapes. The rst momentary contacts were considered to be the result of balls bouncing around due to the turbulent nature of the charge; the actual toe position was therefore taken as a point when the probe was in persistent detection of media, while the shoulder position was obtained when detection of media around sensing face ceased due to media departure from the mill liners (Fig. 1).

Threshold
5 Toe Shoulder

Inductive probe signal (Volts)

4 3 2 1 0 -1 -2 -3 -4 110 Worn balls 155 200 245 Position (Degrees) 290 335 Spheres Cylpebs
12 oclock (0, 360)

Fig. 1. Typical signals produced by inductive probe (one rev., N = 50% Ncrit, J = 20%).

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The threshold voltage of 3.65 V was used to mark the toe and shoulder positions. The power drawn by the mill was generally given as: P 2pNT 60 2

where N is mill speed in revolutions per minute and T is the torque exerted by the charge and was measured using a technique established with an accuracy exceeding one percent (Moys, 1993). 3. Results Results presented in Figs. 2 and 3 shows the variation of toe and shoulder positions for mill lling levels of 15% and 25% with mill speeds. The error bars show the standard deviations (r) of the data at the respective mill speeds. The mill speed points for spheres and cylpebs were shifted for 1% and 1%, respectively to allow unambiguous pre-

350 305
Position (Degrees)

350 305 Shoulder Spheres (N+1%) Worn balls (Unshifted) cylpebs (N-1%)
Toe

sentation of variability. One can generally note that, at lower speed (660% of critical speed), the toe positions are similar for all media shapes. However at higher mill speeds, lower toe positions were obtained for cylpebs than the other two media shapes. Toe position data were analysed using a t-test at 95% condence limit for hypothetical testing of signicant differences among the shapes. Spheres and worn balls, spheres and cylpebs as well as worn balls and cylpebs dierences were tested. From the t-test analysis results it was found that at all mill speeds studied, toe positions varied among media shapes. However at mill speeds of 660% of critical, variations in toe positions with media shape were less than that at speeds greater than 60% of critical. Observation of charge shoulder positions showed that the cylpebs are raised to a higher position as compared to worn and spherical media. This is clearly shown in Figs. 2 and 3. The higher shoulder positions of cylpebs than other media also suggested early cataracting and premature centrifuging for cylpebs as compared to the other two shapes. The variations of toe and shoulder positions with load lling (J) are shown in Figs. 46. The shoulder positions
350 305
Position (Degrees)

260 215 170 125 80

260 215 170 125 80 100

350 305 Shoulder J15 J20 J25 Toe 260 215 170 125 80 100

260 215 170 125

20

40 60 Mill speed, N (% Critical)

80

Fig. 2. Variation of toe and shoulder positions with mill speed (J = 15%) (data mean std, N values shifted to allow unambiguous presentation of variability).

80

10

20

30

40 50 60 70 Mill speed (% Critical)

80

90

Fig. 4. Variation of toe and shoulder position with mill speed at dierent charge lling levels (spherical media).
350 350

305 Shoulder
Position (Degrees)

305

350 305
Positions (Degrees)

350 305 Shoulder J15 J20 J25 Toe 260 215 170 125 80 100

260 Spheres (N+1%) 215 Worn balls (Unshifted) Cylpebs (N-1%) 170 Toe 125

260 215

260 215 170 125

170

125

80

20

40 60 Mill speed, N (% Critical)

80

80 100

80

10

20

30

Fig. 3. Variation of toe and shoulder positions with mill speed (J = 25%) (data mean std, N values shifted to allow unambiguous presentation of variability).

40 50 60 70 Mill speed (% Critical)

80

90

Fig. 5. Variation of toe and shoulder positions with mill speed at dierent charge lling levels (worn balls).

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350 305 Positions (Degrees) 260 215 170 125 80 0 Toe Shoulder J15 J20 J25

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350 305 260

160 140 120 Power (watts) 100 80 60 40 20 0 0 J25 J15 Worn balls Cylpebs Spheres

160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 90 0 100

215 170 125 80 100

10

20

30

40 50 60 70 Mill speed (% Critical)

80

90

Fig. 6. Variation of toe and shoulder positions with mill speed at dierent charge lling levels (cylpebs).

10

20

30

40 50 60 Mill speed (% Critical)

70

80

Fig. 8. Variation of mill power draw with mill speed (J15 & J25).

increased with increase in mill speed and charge lling and are in agreement with previous ndings (Liddell and Moys, 1988; Moys and Skorupa, 1993). The toe positions were steady with mill speed up to about 60% critical. Beyond this speed, the spherical ball toe positions were almost constant (Fig. 4) while that of cylpebs shown a distinct decrease in toe position with increase in mill speed (Fig. 6). It was further observed that charge toe and shoulder positions were aected by charge lling (Figs. 46). The shoulder positions dierences for cylpebs (Fig. 6) between dierent lling levels were not as signicant as for spherical media. The experimental results obtained at mill speeds 660 were used to estimate the dynamic angle of repose of the charge for the three media shape. Fig. 7 compares the angle of repose among the three media shapes at various mill speeds for 20% mill lling. It was observed that cylpebs have higher angle of repose than worn and spherical media. Trends were very similar for 15% and 25% mill ling levels. Although the real operating speeds are greater than 60%, it is long established that at lower mill speeds, the angle of repose of the charge can be used to estimate the charge volume; this assumes that, a simple chord joining the toe and shoulder position can be used to represent the charge prole. This also can be used in estimating the dynamic coef-

cient of friction of the charge cascading down the toe position. It was further found that angles of repose of the charge increased with mill speeds for the studied mill speeds. 3.1. Mill power Sensitivity of power draw to media shape and operating parameters in terms of speed and charge lling level was analysed and is shown in Fig. 8. The power drawn was found to be sensitive to media shape at all charge lling levels studied. At a mill speed of about 72%, which is about the speed most mills are operated; power drawn by the cylpebs and spherical media is similar at all charge levels studied, however beyond this speed, power drawn by cylpebs starts to decrease but that drawn by spheres is still increasing. Dierent media shapes reached the maximum power draw at dierent mill speeds. The maximum power for spheres occurs at a speed greater than 90% of critical (i.e., higher than the highest speed tested). 4. Discussion The load behaviour inside tumbling mills depends on collective interaction and interlocking between individual media and between media and lifters. These interactions and interlocking are greatly inuenced by point or surface contact among media to each other and/or with the lifters. For media-liner contacts, the nature of contact is characterised by mainly two types of motions, rolling and sliding on the faces of the lifter. These are signicantly aected by media shape. Generally, spherical media is likely to be subjected to all two motions while irregular and cylpeb shapes experience restricted rolling as well as sliding motions due to surface contact. This may result in a delayed departure from the mill surface at the shoulder and hence these media may be raised to a higher shoulder position as compared to spherical media. Various power predicting models developed had lumped the eect of grinding media properties in terms of size and

60
Angle of repose (Degrees)

60 50 40
Spheres Worn balls Cylpebs

50 40 30 20 10 0

30 20 10 0 70

10

20

30 40 50 Mill speed (% Critical)

60

Fig. 7. Comparison of angle of repose at various mill speeds (J = 20%).

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shape into a constant. This suggests that for any media shape used, the maximum power would occur at a xed speed. This is not the case as the experimental results show. Cylpebs power draw reached its maximum at a lower speed compared to worn and spherical media. On the other hand, spherical balls reached maximum power draw at speed greater than 90% which is contrary to ball mill data, this is probably because of the higher lifter/media ratio used such that more power was needed to provide lift to balls which were still locked between lifters. This observation is supported by shoulder position data observed in Figs. 2 and 3. This may possibly be explained by looking at shoulder positions among media shapes. As load shoulder position increases, power also increases. However, continuous increases in shoulder results in more cataracting, increasing the number of balls in ight as well as impacting at the toe of the mill. Energy is imparted back to the mill by the impacting balls at the toe, leading to a loss in power as the amount of centrifuging increases. 5. Conclusion Information has been gained on the eects that media shape have on load behaviour and mill power. Load positions that were quantied in terms of toe and shoulder positions are dierent for dierent media shapes. Cylpebs have higher shoulder positions at all the speeds studied and spherical media have the lowest values. The trends are such that for all three media shapes, shoulder positions increase with mill speed. While the shoulder position for spheres increases with mill charge lling, there is little variation in the shoulder positions with mill lling for cylpebs media. It has been found that at speed less than 60%, the toe positions vary little with mill speed but above this speed, cylpebs media have lowest angular toe positions of the three. The toe positions for spheres are inherently constant above mill speed of 60% and higher than worn and cylpebs media while that of cylpebs media decreases with increase in mill speed. It was also observed that mill power was sensitive to grinding media shape used. Power increases to the maximum with increasing mill speed for all media shapes studied. The maximum power draw for cylpebs media occurs at a relatively lower speed in comparison to the other media shapes studied. At lower speeds, cylpebs media draw more power followed by worn balls and lastly spherical balls. The load positions observations show that cylpebs are more dispersed (i.e., spread out over the liner surface) than the other two media shapes. While power models are useful in evaluating dierent control strategies in the light of impact that load behaviour has on milling, information gained can be much useful in improving these models and selection of the right media

shape to achieve specic requirement such as ne grinding or mill power optimisation. Acknowledgements The authors acknowledge the nancial support from Eskom without which this work would not have been possible. The research group is also acknowledged for their cooperation in conducting this work. References
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