Step 1: Creator – define the project and settings

At the start of the simulation you need to set up EDEM for this simulation. This
requires you to do the following:

 Set the units per the table below. Go to the Tools > Options… and
select the Units Tab. Notice that only the units in the table below need
to be changed for this tutorial

 Give the simulation a title and a brief description on the Project section
 Save the simulation to an appropriate place
Step 2: Creator – define the bulk and equipment materials

The first step is to add the bulk material in the Bulk Material section of the
Creator tree and all materials and interactions between them must be defined.
For this tutorial, we are importing the materials from the Generic EDEM Material
Model (GEMM) database.

1. Open the GEMM Wizard to help you select an appropriate bulk and
equipment material for this simulation. Select the following options for the
particle material.
2. Select the entry highlighted below or a material with the closest match
3. Select Medium Wall friction checkboxes in the inclination Test Details
section to generate Equipment Material

4. Rename the newly created Bulk and Equipment Materials as Particle

Material and Medium Wall friction as Steel

5. Check the materials properties have been populated for each on the Bulk
and Equipment Materials
6. Expand the Particle material section and rename as particle

The interactions between the Bulk Material and Equipment Material have
already been created by the GEMM wizard.

Under the Particle section the Size Distribution is set to normal, and the particle
Properties such as mass, volume and moment of inertia are automatically
calculated. If the GEMM wizard is not used, these interactions, particle
distribution and properties need to be defined manually.
7. Expand the Size Distribution section and set the following Size Distribution
Parameters

8. Change the particle physical radius to 50mm and remember to

press calculate properties to update particle properties

Please note that with changing the particle shape and size distribution set by
the GEMM this then impacts on the Bulk Material behavior, the 40 degree angle
of repose chosen via the GEMM wizard will no longer be valid for the modified
particle material.
Step 3: Creator – define the CAD geometry

The SAG mill geometry has already been created in a CAD package and is
ready to be imported into EDEM.

 Download the SAG mill geometry file. stl and import it (for EDEM
Classroom users, import the file SAG_Mill_Reduced_Mesh.stl).
 Select the Geometries Section in the EDEM Creator tree and Import
the CAD model in Millimetres, and check the Merge Sections check
box.
 When the Geometry Import Parameters dialog appears de-select
‘Repair’, Transform/Defeature’ and ‘Flavoring’, leave the other
settings as default and select OK.
  Rename the geometry as Mill and check in the general section that
the Material is set to Steel and Type is set to Physical

Step 4: Creator – define the Mill dynamics

We are using 65% of the critical speed of this drum that is 1.3 rad/s. To simulate
the mill rotation, you need to define the motion by using the Linear
Rotation kinematics.

 Select the Mill geometry and under Add kinematics select Add Linear
Rotation
  Set the start time of the rotation to 1s, this will allow the particles to
settle in the mill
 Modify initial velocity to 1.03 rad/s and define the axis of rotation as
shown below

Step 5: Creator – create the particle factory geometry and set the factory parameter

To get the bulk material into the simulation you need to create a particle factory.
This particle factory is used to define where, when and how particles appear in
your simulation.

 Create a geometry using a Cylinder object and rename it as factory

 Set the Factory Type to Virtual as the object is not a physical part of
the machinery

 Expand the factory geometry section and set the Cylinder dimensions
as per image below
 Click on the Factory section and select Add Factory. The table below
shows the factory parameters for your simulation. The Material will
automatically default to the only Bulk Material created in this
simulation (Particle Material)
Step 6: Creator – define the physics

The Physics section lists available contact models for the simulation. A contact
model describes how elements behave when they come into contact with one
another.

For this simulation, you will add wear calculations to the Hertz-Mindlin Model,
that will allow you to investigate cumulative energy on the equipment. Higher
energy values indicate the potential for higher wear.
 Select the Hertz-Mindlin for the Particle to Particle interaction, remove
the GEMM particle Cohesive Interactions and add in the Particle
Material interactions with ‘0’ Surface energy value.

 Select the Hertz-Mindlin for the Particle to Geometry

interaction, choose the configure button and tick the Record Relative
Wear box
Step 7: Creator – define the environment

The domain (illustrated by the red box) is the area in which simulation will take
place. For this simulation, we are going to decrease the domain in order to
reduce simulation time by selecting the specific area of interest. Note that
particles can NOT be created outside the domain.
  Decrease the Domain with the values shown below
 Uncheck Auto Update from Geometry box
 Set gravity to -9.81 m/s2 in the Z direction
 Under Periodic Boundaries select the Y checkbox

Step 8: Simulator – running simulation

Once the model has been set-up in the Creator we move to the Simulator to run
it.

To ensure stability in most industrial applications we recommend that you set

the time-step to be 20% -30% of the Rayleigh time-step.

 Choose a Raleigh time-step of 20% and cell grid size 3R

 Run the simulation for 5 seconds with a target save interval of 0.01s
 Choose selective save every 5 intervals
 Enable the Track Collisions checkbox as this simulation uses collision
data between particles and geometry as part of the post processing
 Run the simulation by selection the play button
Step 9: Analyst – display relative wear on the mill

The Analyst section is used to review, examine and analyze the results of the
simulation. The relative wear analysis in EDEM is based on cumulative contact
energy on specific mesh elements of the mill.

 Expand the Display section, and under Geometries and Particles

sections uncheck the Display option so you will see only the mill
geometry
 Select the Mill geometry and set Coloring by Tangential Cumulative
Contact Energy to determine relative wear on the mill and play the
simulation
 Change Color by to Normal Cumulative Contact Energy and play the
simulation again to investigate the relative wear

Step 10: Analyst – create selections

Selections allow data to be extracted from a particular area, therefore you can
monitor any element passing through an area (known as a “bin”) or track
particular elements wherever they move within the domain.

Under setup selections click on Add Selection and choose Imported Geometry
Bin Group
 Set Display Mode to Always, List Order to Natural, and the Position
section to Mill as shown in the image below, to see the relative wear
changes on the mill
 Import the geometry bin group (file: SAG_Mill_bins ), and set the units
of measurement to Millimeters. When the Geometry Import
Parameters dialog appears leave all the settings at the default values
and click OK.
  Generate a query under the Options section to track the mass of
particles collected in the bin, and set Query Type to Total as shown
below
 Add a query using the green cross and press OK

Step 11: Analyst – set selection group display options

Set Selection Group display options by following the steps below:

 Select the Imported Geometry Bin Group 01 in the Analyst Tree, and
click the Edit button on the Representation section
  Tick the On-Screen Query checkbox to display the particle mass
query in the viewer
 Use the Highlight Sub-Selection tool to identify quickly the different
bins as shown below

 Click the play button to view the results in real time. As playback
continues through the time-steps, bin group data is collected and
displayed

Step 12: Analyst – Plotting histograms

An easy way to analyse the results is by plotting graphs to understand what is

happening with the particles. For this simulation, you will plot a histogram to
represent the number of collisions and their relative velocity.

Click the Create Graph button in the toolbar and set the Histogram tab with the
following parameters:

 Select the Attribute for the X-axis and Y-axis tabs as Relative Velocity
(magnitude) and Number of Collisions (Total) respectively
  Click the Settings tab and uncheck Current Time Step box.
 Click Create Graph
The relative velocity of particle – mill collisions is shown. Note how the majority
of collisions occur at low velocities and Histogram values will change with
different simulation settings

To analyze the number of collisions for the higher relative velocities:

 Click the Settings tab

 Enable the User Defined checkbox, then set the X-axis Min Value to 2
m/s
 Click Create Graph to plot a new representation