21 BALL MILLS

rs 71 Sizing of Ball Mills

Part - 1

sr no title symbol unit equation example

1 Critical speed of a ball mill

clear diameter
of mill inside
liners D m 4.83
critical speed nc rpm nc = 42.3/D0.5 19.24717

2 actual running speeds of mill vary between 65-75 % of critical speeds

most commonly 70-75% and preferably75 %
if 75 % 75
actual
speed for 4 m
dia mill n rpm 14.4

3 internal volume of mill vol. Clear cross section × grinding length

clear dia D M
cross section A sq. m A=0.785 × D2 18.31319
grinding lengths
compt.1 l1 m 5.2
compt 2 l2 m 9.54
compt 3 l3 m 0
total length L m 14.74
internal vol. V m3 269.9364

Total length of mill flange to flange is equal to L + width of diaphragm

into no. of diaphragms + width of discharge grate
width of each
diaphragm w m 0.125
nos 1
width of
discharge grate 0.134
Total length of mill flange to flange is equal to L+ width of diaphragm 14.999

rs 71 Page 1 of 4
 21 BALL MILLS

rs 71 Sizing of Ball Mills

Part - 1

sr no title symbol unit equation example

4 percent loading of mill

overall vol occupied by balls/vol. of mill
compartment1 wt. of balls/ave.bulk density balls in compt
compartment2 divided by vol of each compt.
compartment3
% loading varies from 27 % for airswept mills to 32 % for bucket elevator mills
It varies from compt. to compt. for the mill.
Ave. common value for design purposes can be taken as 30 %.

5 wt .of ball charge can be worked out in reverse fashion from % loading
and ave. bulk densities.

6 bulk densities are a function of ball size and would vary from 4400/4500 kg/m 3
for balls of 100 mm dia to 5000 – 5050 kg/m3 for balls of 15 mm dia.
See memorand rs 68 on grinding media.

7 Weight of feed in mill

output of mill W1 tph 160

residence time
in mill R min 7.5
weight of feed
in mill wf tons wf = W1 × R/60
R = wf × 60/W1 19.99
let ave % load 28
vol. of mill m3 270
vol occupied
by g. media m3 75.6

ave. bulk density kg/m3 4700

wt. of grinding
media tons 355
weight of feed tons normally 10 – 15 % of wt. 15
of g.media 53.3

steel to feed ratio 6.67

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 21 BALL MILLS

rs 71 Sizing of Ball Mills

Part - 1

sr no title symbol unit equation example

8 Bond's Work kwh/short ton

Index

BWI is established in a laboratory ball mill of standardised size and running under
standardised test conditions.
it is expressed as power required to grind one short ton of material (2000 lbs) from
infinite size to 80 % passing 100 microns when grinding wet in closed circuit.
Alternatively if Hardgrove Index is known BWI can be found using equation
BWI = 435/HG0.91

9 sp. Power for ball mill when BWI is known

applicable to closed circuit ginding wet grinding
w kwh/ton w = 1.1 × BWI × [(f/p)0.5 – 1/(f/p)0.5] × (100/p)0.5
feed size
80 % passing f microns 25000
product size
80% passing p microns 50
Bonds Work BWI kwh/short 18
Index ton

(f/p)0.5 22.36
(f/p)0.5 – 1 21.36
(100/p)0.5 1.4142
26.75
for dry grinding multiply by 1.3 34.77
motor rating multiply by 1.07-1.1 37

if output is tph 160

mill power
at shaft kw for dry grinding 5564
Usually a margin of ~ 5 % would be kept in power required (1932 kw in above
example for sizing mill and its drive

mill sized to draw kw 5842

Having worked out the mill power the next step would be to size the mill

for that the duty parameters and material and circuit details should be known
This dealt with in subsequent rs 72.

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 21 BALL MILLS

rs 71 Sizing of Ball Mills

Part - 1

10 Length to diameter ratios

Open circuit mills

Since material coming out of the mills must be finished product, residence
time must be long enough to suit fineness of product. Therefore open circuit
mills would be long.
l/d ratios would be ~2.5 to 3 for raw material grinding
~ 4 to 4.5 for cement mills
closed circuit mills
now ball mills will be mostly closed circuit mills because of savings in power.
They are therefore shorter.
Type of mill also decides l/d ratio as also fineness to which material must be
ground.
Air swept mills have l/d ratio ranging between 1.25 to 1.5;
bucket elevator mills have l/d ratios of 1.5 to 2.5 when grinding raw materials
and 2.5 to 3.5 when grinding cements.

11 Mills can be sized after working out its power and l/d ratio required.

inputs
calculated otputs

rs 71 Page 4 of 4