Author's personal copy

Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering

https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-020-02180-6

ORIGINAL PAPER

A Numerical Based Approach to Calculate Ore Dilution Rates Using

Rolling Resistance Model and Upside-Down Drop Shape Theory
Hao Sun1,2 · Aibing Jin1,2 · Davide Elmo3 · Yongtao Gao1,2 · Shunchuan Wu1,2,4

Received: 16 February 2019 / Accepted: 17 June 2020

© Springer-Verlag GmbH Austria, part of Springer Nature 2020

Abstract
The chief characteristic of the caving mining method is that caved ores, surrounded by overlying rocks, are drawn from the
drawpoint. And the ultimate objective of investigating the draw problems is to forecast the ore loss and dilution. In this paper,
the rolling resistance model in the Particle Flow Code was used to simulate the effect of actual shape of different materials
flowing towards a drawpoint under the near-field condition and improve the computational efficiency at the same time. The
reliability of the rolling resistance model was validated against experimental results, and the new empirical equations were
deduced for calculation of the ore dilution rates based on the upside-down drop shape theory (UDDS theory). Within the
precision and range of values considered in this paper, the results show that when the height of IEZ is in the range of 30–80 m,
the particle size, the drawpoint size and the column height have no significant influence on the (isolated extraction zone)
IEZ’s shape and maximal width. And regardless of near-field gravity flow with one or two granular materials, the shape of
IEZ was coincident with the upside-down drop shape.

Keywords Cave mining method · Gravity flow · Model draw experiment · Rolling resistance model · Upside-down drop
shape theory · Empirical equation of dilution rate

1 Introduction rock moves from its in situ location towards drawpoints in

Block caving is an underground mass mining method used
to recover low-grade deposits that may otherwise be uneco-
nomical to recover (Brown 2003). A fundamental under-
standing of the gravity flow or flow characteristics of caved
rock and rock within block caves can assist in developing
strategies for the optimization of recovery from caving
mines. The gravity flow is the process by which the broken
* Aibing Jin
jinaibing_rmre@126.com
* Shunchuan Wu
wushunchuan@ustb.edu.cn
1
Key Laboratory of Ministry for Efficient Mining and Safety
of Metal Mines, University of Science and Technology
Beijing, Beijing, China
2
School of Civil and Resource Engineering, University
of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, China
3
Norman B. Keevil Institute of Mining Engineering,
University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
4
Faculty of Land Resource Engineering, Kunming University
of Science and Technology, Kunming, China
the production level. In practice, gravity flow has a direct
impact on recovery and dilution content and, therefore, is
important in determining optimal production level designs
and draw control practices (Castro 2006).
Predictive tools for gravity flow are often based upon
test-scale physical models or mine-scale numerical simula-
tions. Current understanding of gravity flow mechanisms
has largely been developed from observations and measure-
ments made in physical scale modeling using either sand
or gravel as the model media (Kvapil 1965a, b; Laubscher
1994; Power 2004; Castro 2006; Grima and Wypych 2011;
Pineda 2012; Xu et al. 2017; Sánchez et al. 2019a, b). The
draw theories, such as ellipsoid draw theory (Marano 1980;
Kvapil et al. 1989) and upside-down drop shape theory
(Fröström 1970; Jin et al. 2017; Sun et al. 2019) have gradu-
ally been developed and used to theoretically analyze the
draw issues, including the shapes of IEZ (isolated extraction
zone) and IMZ (isolated movement zone), and the prediction
of index of ore loss and dilution. Upside-down drop shape
theory states that the shape of IEZ/IMZ is not symmetric
around its half height and more like a water drop turned
upside down (Rustan 2000), which has been proved and seen

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as a development of ellipsoid draw theory. And mathemati-
cal equation (Kuchta and Mark 2002) or empirical equation
(Jin et al. 2017) has been deduced and validated to calculate
the drop shape and its change trend.
Physical models can be costly, time-consuming to setup
and require a high degree of scientific rigour in order to
obtain usable measurements. Numerical models, once cali-
brated, are able to simulate a wide range of model geom-
etries under almost unlimited conditions (Hancock 2013;
Mergili et al. 2017, 2018), which have been widely applied
to the study of gravity flow (Verdugo and Ubilla 2004; Mun-
jiza 2004; Pierce 2009; Pudasaini 2012; Yashar 2013; Elmo
et al. 2014; Pudasaini and Mergili 2019). As the DEM has
groundings in Newtonian physics, many have concluded
that it has significant potential as a research tool for the
modeling of gravity flow (Alford 1978; Teufelsbauer et al.
2011). And in caving mines, gravity flow has been inves-
tigated by means of the Particle Flow Code (PFC) (Pierce
2002; Wu et al. 2012; Hancock 2013), but few of them take
rock shape into consideration, and in most cases, spherical
ball is used, which cannot represent the realistic caved rock
and inevitably leads to inaccurate shapes of the IEZ and
IMZ. The complex shape clusters are constructed and used
to investigate the rock secondary fragmentation and IMZ’s/
IEZ’s evolution. The model results are validated against the
UDDS theory (Sun et al. 2019). However, as the model size
increases, the total number of particles will sharply increase,
and the computational efficiency of the method mentioned
above will also decrease significantly. Alternatively, more
efficient continuum mechanics based methods can be used
to investigate the dynamics of gravity flow (Pudasaini 2012;
Pudasaini and Krautblatter 2014; Mergili et al. 2017, 2018).
Shape is one of the computationally expensive character-
istics to model in the discrete element method (Wensrich and
Katterfeld 2012; Zhao et al. 2017; Tian et al. 2018), and thus
many have stated and emphasize the importance of rolling
resistance in DEM modelings of granular material, such as
in elastic micro-mechanical model (Chang and Liao 1990),
sand pile (Zhou et al. 1999) and granular flow (Teufelsbauer
et al. 2011; Sakaguchi et al. 1993) simulations. Several static
and dynamic issues are considered, such as the triaxial and
plane-strain compression tests (Jiang et al. 2015), granular
column collapse problem (Huang et al. 2013), and simula-
tion results are consistent with the published laboratory test
results. Therefore, there are two purposes of using rolling
resistance model: (i) to improve the accuracy and reliabil-
ity of the DEM draw simulations, which is obviously bet-
ter than the modellings using only linear-based model with
rigid balls; and (ii) to take into account the shape effect of
caved ore and rock without loss in computational efficiency.
The rolling resistance model can capture the particle rota-
tion resistance due to irregularity in shape, which is better
than directly using non-spherical particles, such as clumped
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H. Sun et al.
or clustered spheres (Zhao et al. 2018). However, it is still
necessary to examine the ability of the rolling resistance
contact model to capture the flow characteristics of caved
ore and rock. The near-field region of flow is considered to
be movement at heights less than 100–200 mean particle
diameters, while the far field region of flow is considered to
be movement at heights greater than 100–200 mean particle
diameters (Pierce 2009). The goal and motivation of this
paper is to improve the reliability of PFC draw modellings
with appropriate computational efficiency and accuracy of
forecast of ore dilution in the near field. To the authors’
knowledge, there is no work in the literature on rolling
resistance models validated against physical test results to
simulate gravity flow of different materials. Furthermore, as
the existing UDDS theory can only calculate the shape of the
IEZ/IMZ, this paper introduces new empirical equations for
the calculation of ore dilution rates in the near field, which
play a more important role in mining design and production
management practice.
2 Description of Isolated Draw Physical
Experiments
2.1 Experimental Model and Processes
As descripted in Jin et al. (2017), a PVC (polyvinyl chlo-
ride) model (Fig. 1) with geometrical scale 1:100 and size
0.5 × 0.5 × 1.2 m3 (length × width × height), and coarse gran-
ular materials (magnetite ores) from Meishan Iron Mine in
Nanjing Province of China were used to replicate isolated
draw conditions. The layout of labeled markers is shown in
Fig. 2 and the properties of granular materials presented in
Table 1 are obtained through basic physical tests, such as
ore solid density and repose angle. And wall’s friction coef-
ficient of the PVC model is measured as 0.50 with the way
described in Jin et al (2016).
The three key parameters (Table 2) considered in the
physical experiments are the particle size, drawpoint size
(side length of a square hole) and column height. It is noted
that the factor of “hang ups” was not considered in the
isolated draw test. Therefore, to avoid the phenomenon of
“hang ups”, the drawpoint size was set to be significantly
larger than an equivalent field analogue. The influence of
drawpoint size on gravity flow was studied using a relatively
large range of values of drawpoint size (60–100 mm).
2.2 Experimental Results
Figure 3 shows three representative IEZs’ vertical sections
for isolated draw experiments descripted in Table 2. It can
clearly be seen from Fig. 3 that all the IEZ’s shapes are coin-
cident with upside-down drop rather than ellipsoid.
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A Numerical Based Approach to Calculate Ore Dilution Rates Using Rolling Resistance Model and…

Table 2 Parameters in three-dimensional experiments of three factors

and three levels in isolated draw tests
Test number Particle size (mm) Drawpoint size Column
(mm2) height
(mm)

1 5 –10 60 × 60 900
2 5 –10 80 × 80 1050
3 5 –10 100 × 100 1200
4 10 –15 80 × 80 1200
5 10 –15 100 × 100 900
6 10 –15 60 × 60 1050
7 15 –20 100 × 100 1050
8 15 –20 60 × 60 1200
9 15 –20 80 × 80 900

confidence probability (Wang 1986) was set as 95%, which

means that the ratio of IEZ’s maximum width to height
wIEZ/hIEZ falls within a certain interval of the experimen-
tal data statistics is 95%. The results are shown in Table 3.
Only when the IEZ’s height reaches 0.5 m, the impact of
drawpoint size on the ratio of the maximum width to the
height is significant, while in all other cases is not signifi-
cant. Therefore, it is thought that within the precision and
Fig. 1 Physical model of the isolated draw experiments a front view range of values considered in this paper, when the height of
of the model; b drawpoint in base of the model IEZ is in the range of 30–80 m, the column height, particle
size and drawpoint size have no significant influence on the
labeled marker shape of the near-field IEZ, which is consistent with results
presented by Castro (2006). The authors believe that the
results of these physical experiments can provide data for
40 mm
validating subsequent numerical simulations (Pudasaini and
Mergili 2019).

3 Description of Isolated Draw Numerical

Simulations
(a) (b)
3.1 Brief Introduction of the Rolling Resistance
Linear Model in PFC
Fig. 2 The layout of labeled markers a schematic plot; b actual photo
Based on the linear model, an anti-rotational torque [the
Table 1 Summary of media and model properties used in the physical roller in Fig. 4 (Jiang et al. 2005)] is added to the rolling
tests resistance contact model, namely the internal moment is
Geometrical Solid density Media’s repose Wall’s friction incremented linearly with the accumulated relative rota-
scale (kg/m3) angle (°) coefficient tion of the contacting pieces at the contact point (Jiang
1: 100 3190 41 0.50
et al. 2015). The rolling resistance moment is initialized
to zero when two pieces come to contact and proportional
to the rotational angle before reaching a plateau (Zhao
et al. 2018). It is a linear-based model that can be installed
Based on experimental data and method of variance anal- at both ball-ball contact and ball-facet contact and is
ysis, this paper focus on the IEZ’s shapes (the ratio of IEZ’s referred to in Commands and FISH by the name rrlinear
maximum width to height wIEZ/hIEZ) under the influence of (Ai et al. 2011). Irregularity in shape resists particle rota-
the particle size, drawpoint size and column height. The tion, thereby enhancing particle interlocking. Therefore,

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H. Sun et al.

Mass drawn (kg) Mass drawn (kg) Mass drawn (kg)

0.8 70 0.8 90 0.8 80

0.7 0.7 80 0.7 70

60
70
0.6 0.6 0.6 60
50
60
Height of IEZ (m)

Height of IEZ (m)

Height of IEZ (m)

0.5 0.5 0.5 50
40 50
0.4 0.4 0.4 40
30 40
0.3 0.3 0.3 30
30
20
0.2 0.2 0.2 20
20
10 0.1 0.1 10
0.1 10

0 0 0 0 0 0
-0.2 -0.1 0 0.1 0.2 -0.2 -0.1 0 0.1 0.2 -0.2 -0.1 0 0.1 0.2
Width of IEZ (m) Width of IEZ (m) Width of IEZ (m)
(a) test 1 (b) test 5 (c) test 9

Fig. 3 Vertical sections of IEZs for physical draw experiments

Table 3 Significance analysis results of three factors

Height of Particle size Drawpoint size Column height
IEZ (m)

0.3 Not significant Not significant Not significant

0.4 Not significant Not significant Not significant
0.5 Not significant Significant Not significant
0.6 Not significant Not significant Not significant
0.7 Not significant Not significant Not significant
0.8 Not significant Not significant Not significant

the action of applying an artificial additive anti-rotational

torque is beneficial to increase the simulated particle
shear strength. The particle’s rolling friction coefficient
combined with the friction coefficient in PFC are used to
simulate the effect of particle shape and resistance to the
rolling motion. In the simulations, this is achieved using
a rolling stiffness kr. A normal critical damping ratio βn
and a shear critical damping ratio β s are used to define
the dashpot, while a rolling resistance moment Mr is used
to define the roller shown in Fig. 4 (Jiang et al. 2015). It Fig. 4 Schematic of the rolling resistance model proposed by Jiang
et al (2015)
is noted that the suitability and reliability of the rolling
resistance linear model for the investigation of gravity flow
should be validated against results of draw physical tests 3.2 Numerical Model and Materials
before its application.
A full-scale PFC3D model was constructed for isolated
draw numerical simulations, measuring 50 × 50 × 120 m3

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A Numerical Based Approach to Calculate Ore Dilution Rates Using Rolling Resistance Model and…
(length × width × height). As illustrated in Fig. 5, the blue
walls represent the sides of the model, the red section of the
wall is deleted during the simulation to form the drawpoint.
The properties of the particles and the walls used in the
PFC3D model are presented in Table 4; they include solid
density ρ, normal stiffness kn, shear stiffness ks rolling stiff-
ness kr, rolling resistance moment Mr, friction coefficient
μ and rolling friction coefficient μr. Those properties are
defined as follows:
1. Particle density, normal and shear stiffness are defined
according to the method detailed in Sun et al. (2019).
As shown in Table 4, rolling stiffness and rolling resist-
ance moment are related to shear stiffness and contact
moment, respectively (Wensrich and Katterfeld 2012);
2. Based on the particle size in Table 2 (geometrical scale
1: 100), the particle size used in the simulations was
expanded 100 times;
3. Similar to Li et al. (2013) and Huang et al. (2013), parti-
cles’ repose angle was numerically simulated and meas-
ured to determine the friction coefficient and rolling
friction coefficient of particle. In this paper, a granular
heap is formed by lifting a container initially filled with
particles at rest under gravity. The rolling resistance lin-
ear model is used, and the simulation is performed sev-
eral times with varying values of the friction coefficient
(μ = 0.4– 0.8) and rolling friction coefficient (μr = 0.2–
0.8) to investigate their effect on the final shape of the
heap. A function in Python is used to identify balls on
the free surface of the heap, and to fit a cone surface
based on the location of those balls. It uses algorithms
available in the SciPy Python module (Itasca 2016): a
Fig. 5 Wall structure of the PFC model with ore as the medium
Table 4 Summary of meso-properties of particle and wall used in
draw models based on rolling resistance model
Meso-properties Particle Wall
Solid density ρ (kg/m3) 3190 None
Normal stiffness kn and shear stiffness ks (N/m) 4.0e8 5.0e8
Rolling stiffness kr (N/m) ks2* None
Rolling resistance moment Mr (kg·m/s) Mc* None
Friction coefficient μ 0.6 0.5
Rolling friction coefficient μr 0.6 None
*R stands for effective contact radius between ball-ball or ball-facet
contact, and Mc stands for contact moment (Itasca 2016)
KD-Tree for quick identification of the balls on the free-
surface of the heap (using a neighboring distance equal
to the average diameter of the balls), and a curve-fitting
function to fit a cone on the location of the identified
balls (note that balls within one maximal diameter from
the base plane or from the apex of the heap are ignored).
For example, if we consider a particle size of 0.5–
1.0 m, its initial state is illustrated in Fig. 6. Figure 7
shows the final state involving the green particles iden-
tified at the free surface and the fitted cone for μ = 0.4,
μr = 0.2 (left), and μ = 0.8, μr = 0.8 (right), which can rea-
sonably accurate in estimating the repose angle of the
heap for the extreme sets of parameters. Figure 8 shows
the evolution of the estimated repose angle of particles
with increasing rolling friction coefficient, for μ = 0.4,
μ = 0.6 and μ = 0.8. It is observed that the particles’
repose angle increases with increasing friction and roll-
ing friction coefficients, and the growth rate decreases
gradually. To match the actual ores’ repose angle (41°)
presented in Table 1, the friction and rolling friction
coefficients of particles were finally set as μ = 0.6 and
μr = 0.6. Additionally, the friction coefficient of the walls
Fig. 6 The initial state of simulation of repose angle
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Fig. 7 Final state showing the
green particles identified at the
free surface and the fitted cone
for μ = 0.4, μr = 0.2 (left), and
μ = 0.8, μr = 0.8 (right)
46
μ = 0.4
μ = 0.6
μ = 0.8
42
Angle of repose (degree)
38
34
30
0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8
Rolling friction coefficient
Fig. 8 Estimated repose angle versus rolling friction coefficient, for
μ = 0.4, μ = 0.6 and μ = 0.8
in numerical model was set to be equivalent to the one
in physical model (Table 1).
In these PFC draw models, rigid balls are used to rep-
resent cohesionless caved ore and rock with linear con-
tact force to represent dry muck conditions at the draw-
points (Grima and Wypych 2011; Sánchez et al. 2019a,
b; Thomas et al. 2019). A damping force is commonly
employed in simulations, especially in DEM simula-
tions, which mimics the dissipation of the kinetic energy
converted into other forms such as sound, seismic waves
or heat (Hancock 2013), which is closely related with
restitution coefficient. The simulations adopt the default
damping model available in the PFC code (Itasca 2016).
For the gravity flow modelling to reproduce a realis-
tic response, the local damping coefficient used in the
simulations is set as 0.7 by trial and error, namely by
comparing the numerical simulation results under differ-
ent values of damping coefficient (0.0–1.0) with physi-
cal test results. Additionally, it is noted that compared
to gravity force, other forces, such as aerodynamic and
magnetic forces, are negligible and thus not considered
in the PFC draw models.
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H. Sun et al.
4. Other parameters which are not presented in Table 4,
such as normal and shear critical damping ratios, are set
as 0.2 based on the relation between the damping ratio
and coefficient of restitution (Kawaguchi et al. 1992;
Wong et al. 2009; Durda et al. 2011) and by trial and
error.
3.3 Simulation Processes and Reliability Analysis
of PFC Simulations
Building on the experience of Sun et al. (2019), the over-
all simulation processes using the rolling resistance model
could be divided into three stages: setup, a controlling draw
and determination of the IEZ. It is noted that as with the
physical tests, a controlled draw was used in the numerical
simulations by means of a container incorporated below the
drawpoint that allowed only a small amount of particles to
fall into the void. The material above this region flows in
much the same way a free flow would. However, once the
container is filled, the draw process comes to a halt and the
granular material remains in a stagnant state until the con-
tainer is emptied by removing all the particles within. This
processed is repeated until the height of IEZ reaches 80 m.
A full-scale numerical draw test was designed and con-
ducted according to the parameters of the physical Test 1
(Table 2). It took about 700 h (real time) to complete the
simulation using dual ten-core 2.20 GHz processors with
64-GB memory. Figure 9 shows the IEZ’s shapes at dif-
ferent heights of IEZs; as the IEZ’s height increases from
30 to 80 m, the IEZ’s shape becomes more and more like
an upside-down drop shape, and its longitudinal asymme-
try becomes more and more apparent. The results suggest
that drawpoint size is the ultimate controlling factor on the
IEZ’s shape at low heights, such as 10 m, 20 m, 30 m. And
the IEZ’s shape in the far field is thought to have a greater
dependency on the properties of the caved ore and rock.
The fitting results of the relationship between the mass
drawn m and the IEZ’s height H are illustrated in Fig. 10.
The correlation coefficient R 2 is 0.999, which means
the mass drawn and the IEZ’s height satisfy the power
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Fig. 9 The IEZ’s shapes at

different IEZ’s heights in PFC
simulations with the same
medium

function relationship given by Eq. (1) (Jin et al. 2017),

whose constants were k1 = 711.393, k2 = 2.668.
8e7 Test data
Fitted curve m = k1 ∗ H k2 . (1)
6e7
Mass drawn (kg)

The ore bulk density γo measured in the PFC model

4e7 after gravitational settling is 2360 kg/m3 and is as follows:
k1 k2 k3
2e7 𝛾o = , (2)
𝜋
R2 = 0.999
where k1, k2 and k3 are three constants that reflect the influ-
0
ence of different factors on the shape of IEZ. Note that
0 20 40 60 80 Eq. (2) is obtained based on the relationship between the
Height of IEZ (m) mass drawn and the IEZ’s height [Eq. (1)], and the relation-
ship between the mass drawn and the volume V (V = m/γo)
Fig. 10 Relationship between the mass drawn and the height of IEZ (Jin et al. 2017). Substituting k1, k2 and γo into Eq. (2) gives
in PFC simulation a constant k3 of 3.9.
Figure 11 shows the comparative result of the relation-
ship between the IEZ’s height H and the maximal radius
(half the maximum width) y max; black curve represents
the fitting result of numerical simulation, and red curve

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16
Numerical simulation
Maximal radius of IEZ (m)
12
8
Physical test
4
R2 > 0.993
0
0 20 40 60
Height of IEZ (m)
Fig. 11 Comparison of relationship between the height and maximal
radius of IEZ in PFC simulation and physical test
represents the fitting result of physical test. The values
of both correlation coefficient R2 are greater than 0.993,
which shows that H and ymax satisfy the power function
relationship given by Eq. (3)
√ Table 5. In Test 1, only ore material is simulated, for a total
k2 k2 −1
ymax = ∗H 2 (3)
( )
e ∗ k2 − 1 ∗ k3
(Jin et al. 2017). The fitting constants of numerical simula-
tion were k2 = 2.7, k3 = 3.9. Substituting k2, k3 and γo into
Eq. (2) gives a constant k1 of 720.8.
The constants of numerical simulation k1, k2 and k3 shown
in Figs. 10, 11 are equivalent; therefore, the IEZ’s shape and
change trend in the numerical simulations based on the rolling
resistance model are in accordance with the UDDS theory.
In addition, Fig. 11 suggests that there is a close fit between
the numerical simulations and the physical test results, which
means that the suitability and reliability of the rolling resist-
ance model for the investigation of gravity flow are validated
quantificationally against experimental results. It should be
noted the IEZ’s height and the maximal radius of physical test
shown in Fig. 11 are expanded 100 times as its geometrical
scale is 1:100, thus within the range of values considered in
this paper, it is safe to assume that geometrical scale has no
significant influence on the dimensions of the IEZs.
4 The Forecast of Ore Dilution Rate
The ultimate purpose of studying the gravity flow is to fore-
cast the ore recovery index, such as loss and dilution rates,
which are the main key indices to evaluate the exploitation
of ore deposits, and represent the utilisation of underground
resources and the quality of mined ores, respectively. As
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H. Sun et al.
illustrated in Fig. 12, pure ores will be drawn from the
drawpoint when the IEZ’s height is less than the height of
caved ore and rock interface; after that, waste rock will mix
with the pure ore and dilution rate will continue to increase.
The IEZ’s shape and its evolution were investigated using
numerical simulations with two granular materials. Empiri-
cal equations were derived for calculation of the average and
instantaneous ore dilution rates based on the UDDS theory.
4.1 Investigation of the IEZ’s Shape with Two
Granular Materials
80 The expression of a drop shape in Jin et al. (2017) was
derived based on physical draw tests with only ore as the
medium. In this paper, the work by Jin et al. (2017) was
expanded to include the study of the shape and evolution of
IEZ using both ore and waste rock.
A PFC model similar to the one in Sect. 3.2 was con-
structed, measuring 40 × 40 × 60 m3 (length × width × height).
As shown in Fig. 13, red and blue particles represent ores
and rocks respectively, and the heights of bottom ore layer
and overlying rock layer are both 30 m.
Three simulations were conducted as illustrated in
height of 60 m. Ore and waste rock particles differ only in
density. Model set up and material properties are the same as
those used in the models described in Sect. 3.2 and 3.3. The
simulation continues until the height of IEZ reaches 51 m. It
took about 100 h (real time) to complete each of these three
PFC simulations.
Figure 14 shows the shapes of the IEZ of three PFC
simulations for draw heights of 30 m, 42 m and 51 m,
z
Rock
IEZ
Caved ore and
rock interface
H
h
Ore
y
Fig. 12 Schematic plot of isolated draw
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A Numerical Based Approach to Calculate Ore Dilution Rates Using Rolling Resistance Model and…

Substituting fitting constants k2 and k3 obtained from

Tests 1–3 into the surface equation of a drop shape Eq. (4)
k2 H
( )
y2 = ∗ hk2 −1 ∗ ln (4)
k3 h

(Jin et al. 2017), gives predicted values of the IEZ’s radius

y at IEZ’s corresponding heights h, which were compared
with actual values of those obtained from tests 1–3. Taking
the IEZ’s height H = 51 m in Tests 1–3 as an example, the
results of comparison between actual and predicted values
of the IEZ’s radius at IEZ’s different heights are presented
in Table 6. It can be seen from Table 6 that the relative
error between all predicted and actual values is within 10%,
which means the IEZ’s shape and its change trend are also
in accordance with upside-down drop shape theory under
the condition of two different granular materials, namely,
Fig. 13 Wall structure of the PFC model with two granular materials
upside-down drop shape theory is still applicable when
actual caved ores, surrounded by overlying rocks, are drawn
from the drawpoint, which can provide theoretical support
Table 5 Parameters in PFC simulations with two granular materials
for the optimization of stope structure parameters and the
Test number Ore den- Rock Height of Height of prediction of index of ore loss and dilution.
sity (kg/ density (kg/ ore layer (m) rock layer
m3) m3) (m)
4.2 Deduction of Ore Dilution Rate Equations
1 3500 – 60 –
2 3500 3000 30 30 Ore dilution rates include average and instantaneous ore
3 3500 2500 30 30 dilution rates, both of which are important for mining. Aver-
age ore dilution rate refers to the ratio between the mass
drawn of waste rocks and the total mass drawn of ores and
respectively. IEZ’s shapes at different heights are equiva- waste rocks, which is directly related to economic benefits of
lent to upside-down drops with longitudinal asymmetry. The mining enterprises, and instantaneous ore dilution rate refers
upside-down shape becomes more and more apparent as the to the ratio between the mass drawn of waste rocks each time
IEZ’s height increases. and the total mass drawn of ores and waste rocks each time,
Figure 15 shows the relationship between the IEZ’s which can control the grade of ores drawn and termination
maximal height H and the maximal radius ymax in the three of the drawn processes (Wang 1982). Two equations of ore
simulations with two media. The values of all correlation dilution rates are deducted based on the new empirical equa-
coefficient R2 are greater than 0.990, which shows that H tion Eq. (4) deduced for calculation of IEZ’s shape.
and ymax satisfy the power function relationship given by
Eq. (3). The fitting constants of tests 1–3 were k2 = 2.7, 2.7 1. Average ore dilution rate equation.
and 2.8, respectively, k3 = 4.4, 4.6 and 5.6, respectively. In Assuming that Vo and Vr are the ore and rock volume
addition, it can also be seen from Fig. 15 that the maximum within the IEZ, respectively, as shown in Fig. 12, then
radius of IEZ in Test 1 is slightly less than the one in Test h
𝜋 ∗ k2 h[ ( )]

∫0 ∫0
H
2 for the same IEZ’s height. Because ore and waste rock
( )
Vo = 𝜋 ∗ y2 ∗dz = ∗ zk2 −1 ∗ ln ∗
k3 z
particles differ only in terms of density, the more compact H
(5)
[ ( ) ]
𝜋
state and larger interlocking among heavier particles leads dz = ∗ hk2 ∗ ln +1
k3 h
to a smaller IEZ’s maximal width. Therefore, gravity flow
is closely related to the initial packing state and bulk density H H[ ( )]
𝜋 ∗ k2
∫h ∫h
of caved ore and waste rock.
( ) H
Vr = 𝜋 ∗ y2 ∗dz = ∗ zk2 −1 ∗ ln ∗
k3 z
H
{ [ ( ) ]}
𝜋
dz =
k2 k3
∗ H k2 − hk2 ∗ k2 ∗ ln
h
+1 (6)

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Fig. 14 The IEZ’s shapes at

different IEZ’s heights in PFC
simulations with two granular
materials

Combining Eqs. (5) and (6), and based on the relation- Solution of this equation gives
ship between total mass drawn m and volume V give the
average ore dilution rate Da as
{ [ ( ) ]}
mr 𝛾r ∗ Vr 𝛾r ∗ k 𝜋k ∗ H k2 − hk2 ∗ k2 ∗ ln Hh + 1
Da = = = [ ( )
2 3
] { [ ( ) ]} . (7)
m 𝛾o ∗ Vo + 𝛾r ∗ Vr 𝛾o ∗ 𝜋
∗ hk2 ∗ ln h + 1 + 𝛾r ∗ k 𝜋k ∗ H k2 − hk2 ∗ k2 ∗ ln Hh + 1
H
k3 2 3

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A Numerical Based Approach to Calculate Ore Dilution Rates Using Rolling Resistance Model and…

( )
𝜋 H k2 − hk2
10 dmr = 𝛾r ∗ dVr = 𝛾r ∗ ∗ dH, (10)
k3 H
Maximal radius of IEZ (m)

8
Test 2 dm = 𝛾o ∗ dVo + 𝛾r ∗ dVr =
𝜋
Test 1 k3
6 (11)
Test 3
[ ( k ) ( k )]
h2 H 2 − hk2
∗ 𝛾o ∗ + 𝛾r ∗ dH.
4 H H

Therefore, combining Eqs. (10) and (11) gives the

2 R2>0.990
instantaneous ore dilution rate Di as

0
( k k )
𝜋 H 2 −h 2
dmr 𝛾 r ∗ k3
∗ H
dH
0 10 20 30 40 50 Di = = [ ( k ) ( k k )]
dm ∗ 𝛾o ∗ hH + 𝛾r ∗ H H−h
2 2 2
Height of IEZ (m)
𝜋
k
dH
3

𝛾o ∗ hk2
Fig. 15 Relationship between the IEZ’s height and maximal radius in =1− .
PFC simulations with two media 𝛾r ∗ H k2 + (𝛾o − 𝛾r ) ∗ hk2
(12)
Similarly, the equation of instantaneous ore dilution
rate Di can be presented as follows:
[ ( ) ]
H − h ∗ k2 ∗ ln Hh + 1
k2 k2

Da = ( ) [ ( ) ], (8) 𝜌o ∗ hk2
H k2 + 𝛾o − 1 ∗ hk2 ∗ k2 ∗ ln Hh + 1 (13)
𝛾
Di = 1 − .
r 𝜌r ∗ H k2 + (𝜌o − 𝜌r ) ∗ hk2
where γr stands for rock bulk density. It can be inferred from Eq. (13) that with a constant
In the original loose condition, the bulk density γ height of ore layer h, the higher the height of draw H,
can be thought of as not varying with height, namely γ the larger the instantaneous ore dilution rate Di, namely
depends only on solid density ρ. Thus, the equation of the faster the rate of change of ore dilution. This phe-
average ore dilution rate Da can be presented as follows: nomenon is closely related to the change trend of IEZ’s
[ ( ) ] shape and it can clearly be seen from Figs. 9, 14 that the
H k2 − hk2 ∗ k2 ∗ ln Hh + 1 top half of the IEZ is obviously larger than the its bottom
Da = ( ) [ ( ) ] , (9) half, which means waste rocks will be mixed into pure
H k2 + 𝜌o − 1 ∗ hk2 ∗ k2 ∗ ln Hh + 1
𝜌
r ore layer more and more quickly with the increase of the
height of draw. Therefore, for the actual mines, much
where ρo and ρr stand for ore and rock-solid density,
more attention should be paid to increase the height of
respectively.
ore layer to reduce ore dilution.
2. Instantaneous ore dilution rate equation.
3. Reliability analysis of ore dilution rate equations.
Instantaneous rock mass drawn dmr and instantaneous
Substituting ore and rock-solid density ρo and ρr,
total mass drawn dm are as follows:
and height of ore layer h presented in Table 5 into the

Table 6 Comparison between Test number Radius of IEZ y/m IEZ’ different heights h/m
actual and predicted values
of the IEZ’s radius at IEZ’s 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
different heights
1 Actual value 7.587 8.594 9.524 9.629 9.317 8.857 6.903 2.670
Predicted value 8.297 9.232 9.711 9.759 9.352 8.401 6.655 2.891
Relative error (%) 9.358 7.424 1.963 5.743 0.376 5.148 3.593 8.277
2 Actual value 7.854 8.933 9.206 9.775 9.478 8.737 7.204 3.172
Predicted value 8.469 9.454 9.971 10.041 9.640 8.673 6.879 2.992
Relative error (%) 7.830 5.832 8.310 2.721 1.709 0.733 4.511 5.675
3 Actual value 7.912 9.653 9.862 10.135 9.990 9.342 7.800 3.224
Predicted value 8.598 9.707 10.327 10.474 10.116 9.148 7.290 3.184
Relative error (%) 8.670 0.559 4.715 3.345 1.261 2.077 6.538 1.241

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Table 7 Comparison between actual and predicted values of the average and instantaneous dilution rates of different IEZ’ heights
Test number Dilution rate Different IEZ’s heights H/m
33 36 39 42 45 48 51

2 Average dilution rate Actual value 2.782 7.328 14.913 22.355 25.621 33.495 40.261
Predicted value 2.400 7.613 13.896 20.407 26.735 32.688 38.187
Relative error (%) 13.731 3.889 6.820 8.714 4.348 2.409 5.151
Instantaneous dilution rate Actual value 22.583 33.965 51.244 58.766 61.007 65.696 75.074
Predicted value 20.079 35.250 46.868 55.887 62.980 68.629 73.180
Relative error (%) 11.088 3.783 8.540 4.899 3.234 4.465 2.523
3 Average dilution rate Actual value 1.876 6.521 11.888 19.158 25.196 29.094 36.135
Predicted value 2.116 6.750 12.417 18.394 24.310 29.972 35.288
Relative error (%) 12.793 3.512 4.450 3.988 3.516 3.018 2.344
Instantaneous dilution rate Actual value 16.242 34.815 40.755 54.713 58.281 67.851 72.603
Predicted value 17.781 31.991 43.344 52.445 59.779 65.728 70.589
Relative error (%) 9.475 8.111 6.353 4.145 2.570 3.129 2.774

Eqs. (9) and (13) give predicted values of the average
and instantaneous ore dilution rates of different IEZ’s
heights H, which were compared with actual values of
those obtained from tests 2–3. The results of compari-
son between actual and predicted values of the average
and instantaneous ore dilution rates of different IEZ’s
heights are presented in Table 7. It can be seen from
Table 7 that almost every relative error between all
predicted and actual values is within 10% (except for
partial results of IEZ’s height H = 33 m), which means
the predicted values of the average and instantaneous
ore dilution rates of different IEZ’s heights are in quite
agreement with that of the actual values, namely the
new empirical equations deduced for calculation of the
average and instantaneous ore dilution rates are reliable.
In addition, for the case of draw of low-grade ore, or
the density of ore and rock is relatively close, the equa-
tions of average and instantaneous ore dilution rate Da
and Di can be simplified as follows:
)k2
h H
( [ ( ) ]
Da = 1 − ∗ k2 ∗ ln +1 ,
H h
)k2
h
(
Di = 1 − . (15)
H small. Therefore, the final near-field IEZ’ shapes and dilu-
5 Discussion and Conclusions
The irregular shape of particle is one of the most compu-
tationally expensive characteristics to model in discrete
element model. This paper uses a rolling resistance model
to simulate the gravity flow of different materials, and the
models are validated against physical test results. Empirical
equations are then derived for calculation of the ore dilution
rates based on the UDDS theory.
The main conclusions are relevant to the near-field grav-
ity flow only and as follows:
1. When the height of IEZ is in the range of 30–80 m, the
column height, particle and drawpoint sizes have limited
influence on the IEZ’s shape and maximum width.
2. According to simulation results, it was found that regard-
less of the number of granular materials, both the IEZ’s
shape and the relationship between the height and maxi-
mal width of the IEZ have backed up the UDDS theory.
The authors, therefore, conclude that this theory is valid
to study gravity flow in cave mines.
3. New empirical equations were derived for calculation of
the average and instantaneous ore dilution rates.
In the initial draw stage, the height of IEZ is relatively
small (e.g. less than 30 m), and the drawpoint size does have
a great influence on the shape/width of the IEZ. It is noted
that the total draw height of equivalent field analogue in the
(14)
experiments of this paper is relatively large (e.g. larger than
80 m), and the proportion of initial-draw-stage data (IEZ’
width and mass drawn) in the total data volume is relatively
tion entry equations can be considered reasonable.
The PFC (DEM) model provides a way to simulate
granular material by modeling each caved ore or rock as an
individual particle, and can provide a great deal of insight
into fundamental behavior (Hancock 2013), unachievable
by other models or methods, such as continuum models
(Mullins 1972; Nedderman and Tuzun 1979; Verdugo and
Ubilla 2004; Melo et al. 2009), which have been employed
to investigated gravity flow by continuum representation of
granular materials using the theory of plasticity in solids.

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A Numerical Based Approach to Calculate Ore Dilution Rates Using Rolling Resistance Model and…
And the focus has been towards the description and calcula-
tion of velocity and displacement field from the stress state
within the granular mass. However, the main theoretical
drawback of continuum methods and models is the require-
ment of a statistical macroscopic equivalency to expand the
point-wise governing equations to body-wise attributes. This
generalization requires homogeneity and compatibility con-
cepts hardly applicable to granular materials (Castro 2006).
Therefore, DEM models are used in this paper and thought
have the greatest potential of all numerical methods as a
research tool for the modeling of gravity flow.
Advances in draw simulation were achieved by consid-
ering more complexity in the PFC model such as particle
shape and using the rolling resistance model to improve the
computational efficiency and provide an effective means
for the study of a larger-scale gravity flow (column height
greater than 200 m). Other significant aspects that have been
considered and will be further investigated or introduced
include the following:
1. As reported by Castro (2006) and Sun et al. (2019),
stress arching is a significant feature in a block cave as
shear forces act at the boundaries over the caved mass
in a direction opposite to gravity. Therefore, the vertical
stresses are less than the cover load, and the horizontal
stresses are of the same order magnitude. It is thought
that with a given column height, horizontal stress at a
lower IEZ’s height is larger than that at a higher IEZ’s
height, with more compact state and larger interlock-
ing among particles, then resulting in an upside-down
drop shape of the IEZ. In the near future, the stress
state before and during gravity flow will be measured
in physical and numerical models yielding also unique
information on vertical and horizontal stresses in coarse
granular materials for quantitative mechanical analysis
and evaluation about the mechanism of gravity flow.
2. Based on the rolling resistance model, physical draw
tests were conducted to study the flow characteristics of
caved ore and rock with inhomogeneous size distribu-
tion and under multiple drawpoints condition. In addi-
tion, it is well known that many block cave mines are
being developed with planned caving heights in excess
of 500 m, an area deemed as the very far field (Hancock
2013), for which case the porosity or bulk density of
caved ore and rock cannot be thought of as not vary-
ing with height. Therefore, draw experiments were also
conducted to study the far-field gravity flow mechanisms
and the equations for calculation of the IEZ’ shape and
ore dilution rates were further modified and refined.
These results relevant to the far-field gravity flow will
be described and analyzed in future papers.
3. Based on the results of physical and numerical tests in
this paper, there is no significant change in the shape of
the IEZ before and after the IMZ extends to the lateral
boundaries of the physical and numerical models, and
the IEZ’s shape and its change trend are in accordance
with upside-down drop shape theory. Therefore, it is
thought that within the precision and range of values
considered in this paper, boundary effects have no sig-
nificant influence on the IEZ’s shapes. To rule out any
boundary effects that could compromise the “isolated”
nature of the extraction zones studied, the potential
boundary effects on both near-field and far-field IEZ’s
shapes will be further investigated.
4. Additionally, the mechanism of secondary fragmenta-
tion and its impact on the ore loss and dilution will be
further investigated by means of physical experiments
and numerical simulations.
Acknowledgements The research presented in this paper was sup-
ported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universi-
ties (Grant No. FRF-TP-19-026A1) and the National Natural Science
Foundation of China (Grant No. 51674015). The authors would like to
acknowledge all the reviewers and editors as they contributed greatly
to the improvements of the manuscript. The first author would show
his appreciation to the China Scholarship Council (CSC) for funding
1-year study at University of British Columbia (UBC) as a joint Ph.D.
student.
Compliance with ethical standards
Conflict of interest We declare that we do not have any commercial or
associative interest that represents a conflict of interest in connection
with the work submitted.
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