Journal Article

Experimental Study of Charge Motion in a Tumbling Ball Mill

Duarte, Claudio Roberto, Barrozo, Marcos A.S., Machado, Marcela Vieira Caixeta, Straatmann, V.

2017

Overview

Tumbling ball mills are a common comminution device in the mineral industry processing, wherein the particle size reduction is performed by action of the grinding media. Different forms of transverse motion in a rotating cylinder have been studied by many researchers. The aim of this paper was to study the transitional phenomena between cascading, cataracting and centrifuging motion. In order to observe these transitions, experiments were carried out in a tumbling mill of 300 mm diameter, and three sizes of chrome steel balls were used as grinding media. Each size of ball was employed in three different lengths of the mill with the purpose to investigate the end-walls effect in the behavior ball charge. The image analysis technique was employed to identify the transition regions. A high-speed camera with maximum speed of 2000 frames/s was used to record images. Experimental data showed it was not found the end-wall effects on the transitional behavior, and this effect can be assessed in numerical studies by analyze of the specularity coefficient.

• Publisher: Trans Tech Publications Ltd
• Subject: Ceramics industry / Chromium steels / Comminution / End wall effects / Grinding tools / High speed cameras / Image analysis / Rotating cylinders / Studies / Tumbling / Wall effects