The discrete element method for the simulation of

ball mills
B. K. Mishra and Raj K. Rajamani

Comminution Center, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA

The discrete element method (DEM) is a proven numerical technique for modelling the multibody
collision behavior ofparticulate systems. This method is used here to study the motion of ball charge in
tumbling mills. To get meaningful results, it is essential that the parameters involved in the model be
carefully determined. These parameters embody essentially the material properties of the system:
stiffness, damping, andfriction. In this study, all the parameters are carefully determined experimentally
for different operating mill conditions. A computer code based on DEM has been developed to model the
motion of the bails in tumbling mills. The code incorporates a scheme to calculate the applied torque, and
hence power input to the mill. A 55cm ball mill is simulated,for two different liner cross-sections-
rectangular and triangular. Results ofthe simulations pertaining to applied torque are compared with the
experiments. It is found that, with a particular modelfor the coefficient offriction, the predicted torque
agrees well with the experiments.

Keywords: ball mill, ball charge motion, simulation, discrete element method

approach to this problem offers a unique advantage in

Introduction
Ball mills are the primary grinding equipment in the
mineral processing industry. Tonnages in the range of
40,000-100,000 tons/day are processed. These mills
consume enormous amounts of electrical energy, and
consequently, the power cost can be as high as half the
total processing cost. For this reason, much of today’s
comminution research is aimed at understanding grind-
ing mechanisms, estimated power draft, and modelling
milling circuits. As progress is made in these areas,
fresh problems have surfaced that require practical as
well as theoretical solutions. These problems deal with,
among other things, accurately predicting the power
draft of the mill, the distribution of collision forces
inside the mill, and the wear rate of balls and liners.
As the power drawn by the mill is intimately related
to the motion of the ball charge, the principal problem is
to model the motion of the balls. An analytical solution
to this problem, in which the collisions are inelastic, is
not possible. Therefore the intention here is to explore
some other avenues of fundamental inquiry, by means
of which it will be possible to model the individual
collisions and hence obtain the motion of the entire ball
charge.
In this analysis the motion of the charge is treated as a
multibody collision problem. Obviously, a numerical
Address reprint requests to Dr. Mishra at the Comminution Center,
University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA.
Received 8 August 1991; revised 24 March 1992; accepted 2 April 1992
that the subprocesses can be quantified. Therefore the
research work reported here is concerned with numeri-
cal simulation followed by experimental verification.
The simulation is based on Newton’s second law for
force calculation and requires some knowledge of the
energy dissipated during the collisions. Since the mo-
tion of individual balls is computed, the en masse
motion of the balls emerges as a result.
What makes this simulation unique is that the mate-
rial properties of the colliding bodies are the only pa-
rameters used in the computation. Therefore the
scheme easily lends itself to scale-up work. In this paper
we pay special attention to accurately determining ma-
terial properties.
Discrete element method
The discrete element method (DEM) is a special class of
numerical schemes for simulating the behavior of dis-
crete, interacting bodies. Hence, by its very nature,
DEM is highly suitable for the ball mill problem. By
definition,’ ” discrete element method applies to a com-
puter program only if it allows finite displacements and
rotations of the discrete bodies, including complete de-
tachment, and recognizes new contacts as the calcula-
tion progresses.” This method was pioneered by
Cundall and Strack,’ who analyzed the behavior of soil
using two-dimensional disc elements in the numerical
scheme. With the increasing popularity of numerical
modelling in various problems, coupled with the avail-
ability of computational time, DEM applications are

598 Appl. Math. Modelling, 1992, Vol. 16, November 0 1992 Butterworth-Heinemann
 Discrete element method in modelling ball mills: B. K. Mishra and R. K. Rajamani

growing in a diverse range of fields, from rock mechan-

ics to computer graphics.
In particulate material research, the problems gener-
ally involve a large number of distinct bodies. It follows,
therefore, that a large number of particles need to be
modelled for many time steps in DEM simulations to
obtain meaningful results. Consequently, most imple-
mentations of the DEM in this area have not progressed
past the two-dimensional stage. We too have used a
two-dimensional code in which the real ball mill is
represented by a thin cylindrical section in which an
assembly of discs, instead of balls, collide; therefore
only the X- and y-coordinates need to be considered in
the calculations. Even with such a drastic simplifica-
tion, the computations require a supercomputer. How-
ever, it will be shown that this two-dimensional approx-
imation is adequate for the estimation of power draw
and motion analysis.
Fs(max)=p l Fn
The DEM ulgorithm
The numerical algorithm is conceptually simple. Ev-
ery disc in the assembly is identified separately by its
radius, mass, moment of inertia, and collision proper-
ties. For all discs, a list of the discs that are in immediate
contact and in the near-neighborhood is maintained. Figure 1. Representation of a contact
Thus to find which other discs are in contact with a
given disc, only that disc’s list is checked instead of
checking every disc. This procedure drastically reduces and are given by
the number of searching steps at the expense of com- m.f; + C,i, + K,.q = F, i= I,2 (I)
puter memory space. Once there is overlap between
two discs, then the normal and shear forces at the
16 + i (K,X, + Ci-f,)s, = A4
contact are determined from the magnitude and rate of
i= I
overlap. Finally, the contact forces on a disc are
summed to get the net out-of-balance force acting on it. where F, is the force acting in direction i, A4 is the
From this force the acceleration, velocity, and displace- moment about the centroid of the disc, and si is the
ment of the disc are calculated. As this procedure is perpendicular distance from the line of action of the
carried out, for every disc an entire set of the disc force (K,xi + C;..$) to the centroid of the ball. The force
positions emerges at the next instant of time, and these F, is the net force acting on the disc at the previous
calculations are repeated over a number of time steps. instant of time. The parameters K and C are the spring
The DEM algorithm applies Newton’s second law to and dashpot constants, respectively. The directions i =
the discs in motion and a force displacement model to 1 and 2 refer to the orthogonal coordinate axis. The
the discs in collision. Newton’s second law gives the above two equations are a special case of the second-
motion of the discs resulting from the forces acting on order nonlinear differential equation of the following
them. Figure I shows a cluster of discs where disc i is in form:
contact with other discs such as k, I, m, and n. At every
contact the forces developing due to collision are 1+ai=b(n_,i)
m
(3)
modelled by a pair of normal and tangential spring
dashpots. The spring-dashpot arrangement for the con- The quantity F(x, .a!_)is the force generated at the con-
tact made by disc i and n is shown in Figure 1. The tact. Of course, the gravitational force is acting through
provision of viscous contact damping models the sys- the center of the disc at all times, and in addition a drag
tem realistically, because for different types of contacts force term can be added if the discs move through a
different damping constants can be specified in the viscous fluid. During a small time step, t to t + St, this
algorithm. Also, friction damping is implemented dur- equation can be integrated by finite-difference approxi-
ing sliding of one disc over another. mations of the derivatives:
The equations for computing the incremental contact
forces between discs were developed by Cundall and f = i(t + St) - a(t)
Strack’; the mode1 equations are presented below in a (4)
St
very genera1 way for ease of discussion. The dynamic
equilibrium equations can be written for a disc charac- ~ = i(t + St) + i(t)
(5)
terized by position X, mass m, and moment of inertia I 2

Appl. Math. Modelling, 1992, Vol. 16, November 599

Discrete element method in modelling ball mills: B. K. Mishra and R. K. Rajamani
Substitution of equations (4) and (5) into equation (3)
results in a simple equation that may be solved for the
velocity during the time step t to t + 6t. This velocity is
then integrated to find displacements:
x(t + 6t) = x(t) + _%(t+ &) x 6t
(6)
In a similar manner, equation (2) is solved to get the
rotation of the disc. Thus by repeating these calcula-
tions for each disc, the new position of all the discs is
determined, and the time evolution of charge motion in
the X, y-coordinate space is given by repeating the en-
tire set of calculations at successive time steps.
The stability of the numerical algorithm is important
in assuring dependably accurate results. Since the inte-
gration scheme outlined is the central difference
method, the numerical stability depends on the time
step chosen. In the spring-dashpot model, a linear elas-
tic behavior of the spring (F = K 6x) is assumed, and in
the dashpot the force is proportional to the relative ve-
locity of the colliding bodies (F = C 6~). Since the ac-
celeration is related to the force acting on the disc, the
value of the time step that assures numerical stability is
related to the parameters involved. This time step is
given in terms of the mass and the stiffness of the small-
est disc as
6t < 2flK (7)
Failure to ensure this condition results in unrealistic
motion of the ball charge.
Applied torque
The torque applied to the mill can be calculated from
the shear forces acting on the mill shell. Assuming that
the applied torque is the retarding torque, the net
torque applied to the mill is determined from
T = i ri x Fshear.; (8)
i=l
where, for any disc i in contact with the wall, ri is the
position vector and Fshear,i is the shear force acting at
the contact. In this manner the torque value is cal-
culated at each time step, and an average value is
reported at the end of the simulation.
Computer code
The algorithm was coded into a computer program
called 2DMILL. This code is based on Corkum’s DISC
code3.4 and Cundall’s BALL code.’ While the basic
structure of the parent code was kept the same, a
number of features unique to the ball mill were intro-
duced. While the details of the 2DMILL code can be
found in Mishra’s thesis,6 the major points are summa-
rized below:
l The code generates x- and y-coordinates of each disc
as a function of time. Hence an animation program
was written to examine the results. The snapshots of
the animation were the only way of analyzing the
600 Appl. Math. Modelling, 1992, Vol. 16, November
numerical results; these were very helpful to com-
pare with the experimental data.
l The original code (DISC) connected the rigid ele-
ments or walls in such a way that they formed only a
topologically convex region. This fact was seminal to
the contact searching scheme in the code. However,
ball-mill lifter-bar geometry implies a topologically
concave space, and hence the code was modified to
accommodate this feature.
l A serious numerical problem occurred, especially
after simulations over thousands of time steps. At all
times the positions of the mill walls are kept in the
memory. Since the mill walls rotate about the center,
the wall coordinates change incrementally at each
time step. However, in evaluating the wall position
coordinates, some precision is lost because of the
very small numbers used in the calculations. It was
noticed that in a typical simulation using a time step
of 10d4 second, the polygonal geometry of the mill got
visibly distorted after just two revolutions. There-
fore at the end of each revolution the wall positions
were corrected to assume their original position at
the start.
l The code identifies midair collisions and assigns a
different coefficient of restitution than those used in
ball-to-wall collisions.
l An important addition to the computer code was the
implementation of the energy and torque calcula-
tions. As a result, the distribution of energy among all
collisions and the distribution of fall heights of the
balls can be computed.
l Many utility codes were added to create data files
and result files. For example, one utility uses the
input data to generate the mill shell.
The results of the simulation were verified with
actual experiments. Recorded video motion pictures of
a 25-cm-diameter mill compared very favorably with
simulation results.’ Also, the torque, measured in the
same mill at a different speed, compared well with the
predictions. In the following, we present the impor-
tance of accurately determining the parameters of the
simulation model.
Simulation parameters
Specialized but rather simple experiments can be
carried out to determine simulation parameters. Since
the model deals with individual disc-to-disc contacts, it
is necessary to choose realistic values of contact prop-
erties; this applies to disc-to-wall contacts also. These
parameters are material stiffness, coefficient of restitu-
tion, and coefficient of friction. Material stiffness is
required to correctly establish the forces generated in
the springs. The coefficient of restitution is a measure of
the damping property of the material, and hence it
figures into the damping parameters, which in turn
establish the forces developed in the dashpot. Finally,
the coefficient of friction is used to check whether
sliding occurs at any contact.
 Discrete element method in modelling ball mills: B. K. Mishra and R. K. Rajamani
Material stiffness
The material stiffness was determined in an appara-
tus known as the “ultrafast load cell,” an apparatus
used by Hofler and Herbst’ for particle bed breakage
studies. It consists of a 5-m-long steel rod in which fast-
responding strain gauges are embedded. These gauges
record the strain waves when a steel ball is dropped onto
the rod. As soon as the ball strikes the rod, a primary
wave is recorded, and as the wave reaches the bottom
end of the rod, it is reflected; this wave too is caught by
the strain gauges. From these recordings the force ver-
sus displacement curve can be computed, which is of
primary use to the ball motion study. Simply, the slope
of the force versus displacement curve is the required
stiffness. Consequently, the stiffness of ball-to-ball col-
lision involving layers of particles in between can also
be determined with this apparatus.
The results of the experiments in which the ball is
dropped onto the anvil (metal-metal collision) are pre-
sented in Table I. It is seen from the table that, for a drop
height of 0.3 m, the value of the stiffness for different
ball weights is of the order of 100 MN/m. As per
equation (7), for this value of stiffness the computa-
tional time step is 8 x lo-’ second. Such a small time
step entails calculations of the order of lo6 for each ball
in 1 second of real time. Furthermore, in a ball mill
grinding particles, metal-metal impacts are less likely to
occur. Therefore a series of experiments was done with
a 250-gram ball dropping onto a layer of particles situ-
ated on the anvil. The results of the slope of the force-
displacement curves are presented in Table 2. In these
experiments, for the same ball weight, the drop heights
are varied. In comparison to the data presented in Table
1, the stiffness values obtained are quite small. The
maximum force recorded when the ball touches the
anvil is also comparatively small.
The tangential stiffness is determined from a theoret-
ical standpoint: For a Poisson’s ratio below 0.5 it is
known from the Hertzian contact theory for spheres
that the tangential stiffness K, may vary from 213to 1 of
the normal stiffness KS. In this study, KS is taken to be
2/3 of the value of K,. Cundall and Strack5 have shown
that for a low friction angle the contact forces did not
change significantly when the KS/K,, ratio varied from
2/3 to 1.
Coefficient of restitution
Coefficient of restitution for colliding bodies by deli-
nition is
(9)
where JR dt and JP dt are the deformation and restitu-
tion impulses, respectively. Using this definition, for
two discs moving in the same direction before and after
impact, the coefficient of restitution is given by
e = (4 - (vu)2
(10)
(vu),- (Jd,
where v0 and v,, are the velocities of discs a and b and 1
and 2 refer to the situation just before and after impact,
respectively. By measuring these relative velocities ex-
perimentally, the coefficient of restitution can be deter-
mined. However, it is known that the coefticient of
restitution is not a material property; it depends primar-
ily on the size, shape, and impact velocities of the
colliding bodies. For these reasons the coefficient of
restitution must be measured under conditions that are
known to exist in the ball mill.
Depending on the nature of the motion of the ball
charge, generally two types of collisions are observed in
the ball mill. The balls that flow down the free surface of
the charge depict “cascading motion,” whereas those

Table 1. Result of the ultrafast load cell experiments to determine the

material stiffness; metal-metal collision

Maximum
Ball mass Fall height Maximum displacement Stiffness
(kg) (m) force (Nl (mm) (MN/m)
0.0926 0.3 8109 0.075 140
0.2523 0.3 11066 0.119 135
0.6468 0.3 24872 0.138 126

Table 2. Result of the ultrafast load cell experiments to determine the material stiffness; layers of quartz particles used between
the colliding bodies; ball mass = 0.252 kg

Maximum
Fall height No. of Particle size Maximum displacement Stiffness
fm) layers (mm) force (N) (mm) (N/m)
0.15 1 3.35-4.0 638 1.41 466,829
0.25 1 3.35-4.0 834 1.93 395,052
0.50 1 3.35-4.0 1212 2.69 429,448
0.25 3 1.14-1.70 370 2.89 111,445
0.50 3 1.14-1.70 601 4.51 190,189
0.75 3 1.14-1.70 1065 5.08 341,346

Appl. Math. Modelling, 1992, Vol. 16, November 601

Discrete element method in modelling ball mills:
that are thrown out of the surface and follow a parabolic
path depict “cataracting motion.” Cataracting balls hit
the mill shell, causing ball-to-wall collision. It is difficult
to determine the coefficient of restitution for the
cascading balls because there is no impact. Finally,
there is another type of impact that occurs in the mill,
that is, balls colliding in midair, resulting in ball-to-ball
collision.
Simple experiments were done to determine the
coefficient of restitution for ball-to-wall collisions. In
these experiments, balls of different sizes held at a fixed
height were dropped onto a thick metal plate. Usually,
the drop height was about 30 cm. The impacts were
captured on a video camera, and the video frames were
analyzed to calculate the rebound heights. It is easy to
show that the coefficient of restitution is given by
e = vh,lh,
. . (11)
where h, and h2 are the rebound and fall heights, respec-
tively. For different ball sizes and drop heights, the
value ofthe coefficient fell in the range of0.4-0.6. Next,
to determine the coefficient of restitution for ball-ball
collisions, a pendulum experiment was devised. Two
spherical balls were hung by threads. One of the pendu-
lums was stationary, while the other was released from
different distances. Again the heights of the balls before
and after impact were measured from video frames. In
this case the coefficient of restitution is
e=2m-1 - (12)
where h, is the rebound height of the ball that was
originally at rest and h, is the fall height of the impacting
ball. In these experiments it was observed that there
was very little variation in the measured coefticient.
The average coefficient of restitution is found to be 0.97,
which pertains to midair collisions only.
Damping constant
The value of the damping constant is estimated from
the coefficient of restitution, since the latter is a mea-
sure of the energy loss upon collision. Corkurn showed
that for a given coefficient of restitution e the damping
constant C is
2 In (e)VG
C= - (13)
%W(e) + 7r2
where m = m,m,l(m, + mz) and m, and m, are the
masses of the colliding discs. If m, is very large in
comparison to m,, as in the case of a moving wall, then
m is the mass of the disc only.
Coefficient of friction
In light of the spring-dashpot model of collisions, the
shear force due to the dashpot is limited by the maxi-
mum that can exist at the contact, which is given as
F s,max =pxF,, (14)
where p is the coefficient of friction and F,, is the normal
force at the contact. If the absolute value of the force in
the shear-spring and dashpot exceeds the value given by
602 Appl. Math. Modelling, 1992, Vol. 16, November
B. K. Mishra and R. K. Rajamani
equation (1.5), then slip is presumed to occur. In this
situation, during the computation the dashpot in the
shear direction is omitted, and the F,,,,, value is used
instead. Rose and Sullivan’ have determined the
coefficient of friction for different conditions that are
applicable to ball mills.
Remarks about the parameters
The ball charge motion is a mix of low-energy and
high-energy collisions. Therefore the parameters deter-
mined from specialized experiments point out the order
of magnitude of the constants involved; however, they
need to be adjusted to obtain meaningful results. For
instance, Mishra and Rajamani’ tracked the position of
two arbitrary discs in a 25cm-diameter laboratory mill
by means of video image analysis. The shoulder and toe
nosition of the charge was determined at various mill
speeds. In the simulations the stiffness value was fixed,
but other parameters were adjusted to obtain good
agreement with experimental results. In this manner,
the correct values of the coefficients of restitution and
friction are established.
The material stiffness value used in the model must
represent the physical situations that are encountered in
a ball mill. A single stiffness value cannot represent all
forms of impact. In the ultrafast load cell experiments, it
is noted that the contact stiffness depends on the num-
ber of layers of particles between colliding balls, the
mass of the ball, and the fall height or the velocity of
impact. However, within a range, a stiffness value can
be chosen such that (1) the time step is minimized, (2)
the contact overlap is reduced, and (3) the over-
all motion of the charge is preserved. For the simula-
tions reported here, the best value of stiffness is
400,000 N/m.
Numerical results and comparison with
experimental data
Liddel and Moys” and recently Moys” have published
torque data on a 0.545-m x 0.304-m ball mill. Since
these authors claim an accuracy of 0.5 percent, their
data are chosen for comparison.
Experiments conducted on the 0.55-m-diameter mill
utilized four different lifter bar profiles. For the purpose
of comparison, two different configurations of lifter
bars were chosen: square and triangular. The square
lifters were 0.02 m x 0.02 m in cross-section, and the
triangular lifters were 0.02 m high and slanted in the
direction of the mill rotation. Thus 18 square lifters and
18 triangular lifters were used in the experiment. The
grinding media were made up of graded charge of
0.012-m, 0.018-m, and 0.025-m balls with a bulk density
of 4700 kg/m3.
For comparing the results of the discrete element
code with experimental data, a scheme is developed to
extrapolate the results of the two-dimensional model to
a real mill. To do this, the mill can be considered as
individual slices in which the ball charge motion is
confined to the radial direction only. After simulating
 Discrete element method in modeling ball mills: 6. K. Mishra and R. K. Rajamani

one such slice, the results for the entire mill are cal-
culated, the number of slices that make up the real mill
being known. In doing so, the component of velocity in
the axial direction is neglected. In other words, the
torque component due to charge movement in the axial
direction will not be accounted for in the two-dimen-
sional model. This component could be significant, es-
pecially in the feed end and discharge end of the mill.
The procedure for determining the number of slices
that is equivalent to the actual mill is as follows: Since
the code represents the spherical balls by discs, the area Mill Diomter =55cm
of the mill occupied by the discs is known. The disc is 70 _ Mill Length = 30cm
assigned the same weight as the spherical ball it repre- Mill Filling=38.5%
sents. Then the number of discs in the slice is adjusted I I I I I

so that the percentage of the area occupied by the discs, 0.6 0.7 0.9 0.9 1.0

including the void area, is equal to the percentage Fraction of Critical Speed I-l
charge filling used in the real mill. It should be noted that
the charge filling refers to the percent of the volume Figure 2. Comparison between experimentally determined
torque and the simulation
including the void volume occupied by the balls. Now,
with the number of discs in a given slice, the mass of the
slice is computed. Finally, the total number of slices is
the actual ball weight divided by the weight of discs in a earlier, while simulating the swivel lifter profile, a linear
single slice. Therefore the power draft or torque of the variation of the coefficient of friction with speed was
actual mill is the corresponding value for the slice assumed. Because of the excessive amount of sliding at
multiplied by the number of slices. high speed, this change in the contact model was incor-
The simulations were done in the fractional critical porated.
speed range of 0.6- 1.Oat a constant ball tilling of 38.5%.
From the ball filling, the ball weights, and the bulk
Conclusion
density data of the charge, the number of slices equiva-
lent to the mill was calculated to be nine. Other perti- The processes that take place inside a ball mill are not
nent data relating to the simulations are shown in known because of a lack of sensors that can function in
Table 3. the harsh environment. Instrumented balls are used to
It is known that the friction of most materials de- gather information with regard to motion and collision
creases with an increase in the speed of sliding.” of balls’3; however, the instrumentation itself is quite
Excessive speed of sliding was observed in simulating expensive and still under development. The mathemati-
the mill with swivel lifters. This situation required a cal model employed here involves the material proper-
change in the coefficient of friction for every mill speed ties of the colliding bodies as parameters. It is found
considered for simulation. Since DEM allows for that, unless these parameters are correctly used, the
changes in material parameters during simulations, a ball mill problem cannot be simulated correctly. With
linear variation of coefficient of friction with mill speed the correct choice of the parameters, accurate trends in
was used in simulating the motion of discs in the mill the variation of power with mill speed and filling are
fitted with triangular lifters. observed. A scheme is devised to utilize the two-dimen-
Figure 2 compares the results of simulation with sional simulation results to predict the power of a real
those of the experiment. Here, the variation of torque mill. The torque required to drive the mill at different
with the rotational speed of the mill is shown for two speeds is predicted, and the predicted power draft is
different lifter bar profiles. The overall agreement is compared with actual mill data. It is shown that the
found to be satisfactory. However, as was mentioned 2DMILL code can predict the power draft of actual
mills.
An analytical description of the multibody collision
Table 3. Data used for the simulation problem is difficult, but the discrete element method
Normal stiffness
enables the numerical simulation of ball charge motion.
400,000 N im
Shear stiffness 300,000 N / m
Currently, the simulation requires hours of super-
Coefficient of friction 0.1 computer time, depending on the number of balls to be
Coefficient of restitution: simulated; a 0.55-m-diameter mill consisting of 42 walls
Ball-ball impact 0.8 and filled with 148 balls, when run at 40% of its critical
Ball-wall impact 0.4
Critical time step 0.1 x 10-3 s
speed, requires 7.84 hours of CPU time on an IBM 3090
Mill diameter 0.545 m supercomputer.
Disc radius 0.012, 0.018, 0.025 m Realistic simulation of ball motion in three dimen-
Disc weight 0.06, 0.195, 0.525 kg sions is immensely difficult when the number of balls
Critical speed 57.8 rpm
Mill filling
exceeds a thousand. The difficulty is primarily due to
38.5
the enormous amount of computer time involved. As a

Appl. Math. Modelling, 1992, Vol. 16, November 603

Discrete element method in modelling ball mills: B. K. Mishra and R. K. Rajamani
result of this constraint-which is implicit in the nature
of the discrete element method-DEM-based codes
have not developed significantly past the two-dimen-
sional stage. For ball mill simulations in which the
problems involve a large number of distinct bodies to be
modelled, it is felt that a two-dimensional computer
code employing the slicing procedure outlined here is
most efficient.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the Utah Super Com-
puting Institute, which is funded by the state of Utah,
and the IBM Corporation for their support in this en-
deavor . Chemical Publishing Co., New York, 1958
This research has been supported by the Department
of the Interior’s Mineral Institute program administered
by the Bureau of Mines through the Generic Mineral
Technology Center for Comminution under grant num-
ber G1175149.
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