See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/346427067

Determination of Load Jc and Balls Jb Level by Power Draw and Pressure in

Grinding Mills

Method · November 2020

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.26364.97928

CITATIONS READS
0 243

1 author:

Mario Cerda

14 PUBLICATIONS 0 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE

All content following this page was uploaded by Mario Cerda on 27 November 2020.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

Determination of Load Jc and Balls Jb Level by Power
Draw and Pressure in Grinding Mills

Mario Cerda

ABSTRACT

For purposes of determining the charge level Jc and the ball level Jb, the use of the energy
consumption equation is not sufficient given the presence of two variables in a nonlinear model.
Therefore, from the pressure measurements, the additional equation necessary for the nonlinear
equation system is provided.

A model was developed based on the discrete element method that allows predicting the
percentage of load inside the mill that is in flight based on the percentage of critical speed, load
level and lifter angle, being the differential between the initial state and the fraction in flight, the
element that contributes with the mass for the measurement of the pressure in the mill.

Therefore, the determination of the percentage of charge and balls can be determined by iterating
both equations that were obtained using multivariable nonlinear regressions.

Validations are performed with industrial grinding data for a SAG mill of 36´ diameter.

This method presents an important potential development given the stability of the existing
measurement system in pressure mills and energy consumption, which could be above the load
measurement technologies developed to date.

1
INTRODUCTION

The determination of the levels of load and balls inside mills has been one of the great challenges
that keeps engineers busy in large mining operations and their innovation subsidiaries. To this end,
strategic alliances have been made, developing sensors and technologies. who intend to fulfill that
purpose. Such measurements try to have the tool to optimize the comminution processes, through
the specific consumption of energy and the consumption of wear steels.

However, the approximations obtained with the use of sensors have not been able to obtain direct
measurements of the Jc and Jb levels, and the use of the known equations present the difficulty of
having two variables and a single power equation that is a nonlinear type.

And for this reason, the present work incorporates a second pressure equation, which adjusts to
the load that generates pressure in effective form, in order to obtain the total mass of load inside
the Mill, allowing to obtain load levels Jc and Jb, through stable iteration and independent of the
use of additional sensors to those already available, as standards in these equipment.

METHODOLOGY

The determination of the levels of load and balls inside the mills, can be carried out with direct
measurements of pressure and power in such equipment, these variables present dispersion values
that suggest the impossibility of measuring, in order to detect trends or carry out projections of
other variables such as Jc and Jb. However, with the power model developed by the author of this
study and based on discrete elements, it was possible to determine that the variation and dispersion
in the power measurements are due to the fact that a significant fraction of the load is in flight, for
Therefore, not only the power presents variations in fractions of seconds, but also the bearing
system pressures. This assertion could be confirmed with the correlation coefficient between
pressure and power close to 0.80, a value much higher than other correlations obtained with other
variables studied.

That said, it is proposed to include the dimensionless power coefficients of the present author, to
the methodological development for the determination of the load levels Jc and Jb, following the
three consecutive steps:

 Determination of the mass inside the Mill.

 Determination of the load level, Jc.
 Determination of the ball level, Jb.

2
Determination of the mass inside the Mill, mload.

According to Newton's second law, the procedure must satisfy equation (1), where the variable Pr
corresponds to the pressure at the mill bearing pad and the coefficient f is related to the thrust
force in a Gearless motor, in case of mechanical drives f = 0. Both the magnitude of f and the area
of the bearing pad are unknown, therefore they must be configured in the mill starting when the
level Jc and Jb is known with certainty, allowing the coefficient C of the equation (2)

𝑃𝑟 ∗ 𝐴𝑝 𝑀 ∗𝑔∗ 1 𝑓
(1)
𝐴𝑝
𝐶
1 𝑓
(2)

By having all the parameters identified, the value of the total mass of the system can be obtained
as indicated in the equation (3).

𝑀 𝑚 𝑚 𝑚 𝑚
(3)

In the case of a gearless mill, the mass of the grinding mill and the motor are considered constant,
hence they can be removed from the equation (3). Consequently, the replacement with equations
(2) and (3), in equation (1), is achieved to obtain the load mass inside the mill.

It is important to mention that a significant fraction of the mass inside the mill, is located in flight,
so the coefficient K1 must be entered from the proposed power model, thus allowing the obtaining
of the mass as indicated in equation (4).

𝐶 ∗ 𝑃𝑟 𝑚 ∗𝑔
𝑚
𝑔∗𝐾
(4)

Determination of the load level inside the Mill, Jc.

From the power model proposed in equation (5), it is feasible to obtain the Jc load value replacing
equation (4) in equation (5).

𝐷 ∗ 𝜋 ∗ 𝑁𝑜𝑝
𝑃 𝐾 ∗𝐾 ∗ 1 𝐾 ∗ ∀ ∗𝐽 ∗𝜌 ∗𝑔 ∗
60

3
 (5)
𝐷 ∗ 𝜋 ∗ 𝑁𝑜𝑝
𝑃 𝐾 ∗𝐾 ∗ 1 𝐾 ∗ 𝑚 ∗𝑔 ∗
60
(6)

Equation (6), after a series of algebraic arrangements is transformed into equation (7), which
through an iterative process, allows to obtain the values of Jc, corresponding to the roots of
equality present in equation (7). At this point, it is important to mention that equation (7) is
nonlinear and, as such, not only has more than a single solution, but also has a chaotic behavior
and has fixed point attractors and cyclic or curve attractors. Even being able to approach the
predator prey models of lotka-volterra (operators say the mill always demands mineral)

This is an independent characteristic of the all power model, which could be used in equation (5)
to obtain Jc. The use of the Austin [1], Morrel [2] and even Hogg & Fuerstenau models will have the
same behavior.

60 ∗ 𝑃
ℱ 𝐽𝑐 𝐾 ∗𝐾 ∗ 1 𝐾 0
𝑚 ∗ 𝑔 ∗ 𝐷 ∗ 𝜋 ∗ 𝑁𝑜𝑝
(7)

Determination of the level of balls inside the Mill, Jb.

The determination of the level of balls Jb, it is possible to observe it in equation (16), which is
constructed with the replacement and algebraic adjustment from equation (8) to (15), equations
that are otherwise supported by reference [3].

∀ 𝐽𝑐 ∗ ∀
(8)
𝑚
𝜌
∀
(9)
𝑚 𝑚 𝑚 𝑚
(10)
𝑚 𝐽𝑐 𝐽𝑏 ∗ ∀ ∗ 𝜌
(11)
𝑚 𝐽𝑝 ∗ 𝑓𝑣 ∗ ∀ ∗ 𝜌
(12)
𝑚 1 𝑓𝑣 ∗ ∀ ∗ 𝜌
(13)
𝑚 𝐽𝑐 ∗ ∀ ∗ 𝜌
∀
𝜌 ∗ 1 𝑓𝑣 𝜌 ∗ 𝐽𝑝 ∗ 𝑓𝑣 1

4
 (14)
∀ 𝐽𝑏 ∗ ∀
(15)
𝑚 𝐽𝑐 ∗ ∀ ∗ 𝜌
𝐽𝑏
∀ ∗ 𝜌 ∗ 1 𝑓𝑣 𝜌 ∗ 𝐽𝑝 ∗ 𝑓𝑣 1
(16)

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Several evaluations were carried out on an operation database from 2015 to date, of two SAG mills
in a major mining operation in the Atacama region, obtaining in all analyzed cases the convergence
of the Jc and Jb values.

Figure 1 represents the initial value of Jc and Jb of a sample present in the 2017 data base, where
power, pressure, concentration by weight of the pulp and angular velocity of the Mill were recorded
every 5 minutes. In figure 2, the results of the same sample are shown, after five iterations with
stable and converged Jc and Jb values.

100% 900
90%
850
80%
70%
800

Pressure (psi)
60%
Jc & Jb

50% 750
40%
700
30%
20%
650
10%
0% 600
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Hours

Jc Jb Pressure Lineal (Jc) Lineal (Jb)

Figure 1 Load and balls level from the proposed methodology at iteration 0

5
 100% 900
90%
850
80%
70%
800

Pressure (psi)
60%
Jc & Jb

50% 750
40%
700
30%
20%
650
10%
0% 600
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Hours

Jc Jb Pressure Lineal (Jc) Lineal (Jb)

Figure 2 1 Load and balls level from the proposed methodology at iteration 5

CONCLUSION

 The measurement of the level of load and balls in a Mill, having only as main input
variables, the bearing pressure and power, is feasible if the variables of percentage of
solids and speed of rotation of the Mill are considered, along with using the equations
listed below:

𝐶 ∗ 𝑃𝑟 𝑚 ∗𝑔
𝑚
𝑔∗𝐾
(4)
60 ∗ 𝑃
ℱ 𝐽𝑐 𝐾 ∗𝐾 ∗ 1 𝐾 0
𝑚 ∗ 𝑔 ∗ 𝐷 ∗ 𝜋 ∗ 𝑁𝑜𝑝
(7)
𝑚 𝐽𝑐 ∗ ∀ ∗ 𝜌
𝐽𝑏
∀ ∗ 𝜌 ∗ 1 𝑓𝑣 𝜌 ∗ 𝐽𝑝 ∗ 𝑓𝑣 1
(16)

 All these variables present in the equations, to date, have already been recorded in the
largest conventional grinding equipment.
 The presented methodology can become a tool that will allow to have a more exact
control of the load and ball levels in the mills of the current systems, tools, and sensors
currently available.

6
  Similarly, it can be scaled to a software technology capable of integrating control
interfaces in milling operations. Said interface can also be used to evaluate the durability
of the liners.
 The direct measurement of the level of charge and balls inside a mill is impossible due to
the physics present in the System, which had not been understood to date.
 Underlying, the development and search for technologies that allow the measurement of
load inside the mills, will not have the expected result unless signal processing is
incorporated, based on the physics of multi-particle systems that define the operation of
the mills.

NOMENCLATURE

Ap Total hydrostatic shoe bearing area, m2

D effective internal diameter of the mill, m
f Dimensionless force fit factor for gearless motor.
fv Volumetric fraction of interstitial spaces between balls (0 to 1, by default 0.4)
g Acceleration of gravity, m/s2
Jc Total load level (from 0.1 to 0.5)
Jb Total ball level (from 0.1 to 0.5)
Jp Level of slurry filling between interstitial spaces (0 to 1, by default 0.6)
K1,K2,K3,K4 Dimensionless fit factor from novel power draw model proposed by author
L effective internal length of the mill, m
mb balls mass, kg
mliner Total mass of internal liners, kg
mload Total mass of internal mill load, kg
mmill Total mass of mill, kg
mmotor Total mass of rotating gearless motor part, kg
mpEI mass of the slurry between the interstitial spaces, kg
mpE excess slurry mass, kg
mt Total mass of the multi particle system, kg
Nop Mill operating speed, rpm
P Total latent power or total power demand, W
Pr Bearing gauge pressure at hydrostatic shoe bearing or pads, Pa
ρap Apparent density of mill internal load, kg/m3
ρsl Slurry density, kg/m3
ρb ball density, kg/m3
Ѵload Effective internal load volume of the mill, m3

7
 Ѵt Effective internal volume of the mill, m3

REFERENCES

[1] Austin, L.G.. (1990). Mill power equation for SAG mills. Minerals and Metallurgical
Processing. 7. 57-63. 10.1007/BF03403284.

[2] Morrell, Stephen. (2003). Grinding mills: how to accurately predict their power draw.
Proceedings XXII International Mineral Processing Congress.

[3] Pontifical Catholic University of Chile SIMULA Manual v1.0, School of Engineering – Mining
Center

View publication stats