PAPER 36

High Fidelity Simulation Of Full Mill Transport And Breakage In

SAG/AG And Pebble Mills

John A. Herbst, General Manager

Xiangjun Qiu, Manager of HFS
Alexander Potapov, HFS Scientist

Metso Minerals Optimization Services

621 South Sierra Madra St
Colorado Springs, CO 80903, USA
PH: (719) 471 3443
john.herbst@metso.com
x.qiu@metso.com and alex.potapov@metso.com

Key words: Discrete Element Modeling, Tumbling Mills, Material Transport, Material Breakage

Proceedings The Westin

35th Annual Meeting of the January 21-23, 2003
Canadian Mineral Processors Otawa, Ontario, Canada

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ABSTRACT

High Fidelity Simulation is a name applied to the use of first principles modeling tools
including Discrete Element Modeling (DEM), Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and
Discrete Grain Breakage (DGB) to mathematically describe and study processing
systems. Over the past few years, significant advances have been made in High Fidelity
Simulation applications, particularly as many mineral processors have been drawn to the
study and use of DEM of grinding mills for optimization purposes. This presentation
provides an introduction to High Fidelity Simulation, with an emphasis on DEM. It will
include insights into current applications of these tools including the optimal design
(wear and throughput) of mill lining systems and media selection, the analysis and design
(flow and efficiency) of the back-end of grate discharge mills. Advantages of full mill
simulations versus individual sub-process simulations will be demonstrated for a SAG
mill with different discharge system designs.

INTRODUCTION

High Fidelity Simulation is providing mineral processors with the opportunity to analyze the
behavior of mineral processing equipment from a fundamental or microscale point of view. In
the past complex phenomena such as tumbling mill grinding had to be analyzed using black box
tools such as residence time distributions for transport and classification functions for passage of
particles through grates; while breakage had to be analyzed using PBM models who derived their
form from theory but required direct measurement of kinetics. Today with the help of DEM,
CFD and DGB these can be analyzed at a very fundamental level.

The key element of DEM simulation is the application of Newton’s laws of motion to individual
objects or discrete elements. Using this simulation method one can describe the position,
velocity (both translational and rotational) of all objects and the transfer of momentum to other
objects (Mishra and Rajamani, 1992; Cleary, 1998; Nordell et al, 2001).

The key element of CFD is the application of the Multiphase Flow Equation to appropriate sized
fluid elements while taking into account the forces of interaction between the fluid and particles
(Tsuji et al, 1995). In this way flow field velocities and their influence of particles of different
sizes and shapes can be computed.

The key element of DGB is the crack energy balance equation applied to the creation of new
surface along the faces of discrete grains making up each particle (Potapov and Campbell, 1996).
All of these tools have been validated at one level or another in laboratory and full-scale
continuous operation. When all of them are combined one can in principle simulate the behavior
of an entire mill including charge motion, axial of material transport impact/shear and energy
dissipated by media and particles

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Limitations of the size of problem that can be simulated in this way with the most efficient code
available today is about one million elements.

METHODOLOGY

In order to conduct this study at a size that is computationally feasible a 1m diameter SAG mill
with a length of 0.5m was simulated. The 17% volumetric filling of balls (distributed between
48mm and 25mm), the 17% volumetric filling of particle initially distributed between 36mm and
12mm at a speed of 32.5 rpm. In this case pure transport was examined for different backend
discharge mechanism designs. These designs included different pulp lifter designs (see Figure 1)
as well as different grate openings and grate wall inclinations (see Figure 2). In this phase of the
study we were interested in determining throughput for different conditions as well as impact
energy spectra and power draw. The accuracy of various approximations to the full mill
simulation including 2D and 3D slices was also evaluated.

Figure 1. Straight and curved pulp lifter configurations

Cone Angle = 15o Cone Angle = 7.5o Cone Angle = 0o

Figure 2. Cone angle configurations

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In the second phase we included breakage. Here it was necessary to use small numbers of
breakable tracer particles so that the number of progeny didn’t become so large that the
simulation problem was intractable.

RESULTS

A base case was established involving straight pulp lifters, 25mm grate slots and a grate wall
angle of 15° measured away from the vertical. To start standard 2D and 3D slice simulations
were performed as depicted in the snapshots shown in Figures 3 and 4 respectively.

Power = 547 kW Recycle = 33.2%

Figure 3. 2D simulations for base case (shell left and backend right).

Power = 508 kW Recycle = 77.8%

Figure 4. 3D slice simulations (shell left and backend right).

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Figure 5. Snapshot of DEM simulation from discharge end (Recycle = 75.3%)

Figure 6. Snapshot of DEM simulation from feed end (Power = 509 kW)

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The associated power draw and internal recycle from the backend calculation are shown in the
figures. Here it is apparent that the 2D and 3D simulations yield different approximations to full
mill performance. Here we see the most accurate predictions of power and discharge
performance. It is clear that the 2D simulations provide relatively crude approximations while
the 3D slice simulations get much closer. Of course there is a computational time penalty
associated with better or higher fidelity simulations as shown in Table 1.

Table 1

Simulation Type Relative CPU Time

2D .07
3D slice .29
Full mill 1.00
Full mill with breakage 9.00

Another benefit of full mill simulation is illustrated in the wear map snapshots for the base case
shown in Figure 7.

Figure 7. Wear snapshots from side and discharge end

Actual transport due to continuous feeding of particles can only be simulated in a full mill
environment. In this case a periodic boundary condition solution calls for a new feed particles to
be added to the mill each time one is discharged. This type of simulation corresponds to a
controlled filling experiment in which feed is adjusted over time until a steady state condition is
achieved. The feedrate over time for this simulation is shown in Figure 8.

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 5
4.5
4
Discharge Rate, mtph 3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
0 2 4 6 8 10
Time, revs

Figure 8. Simulated mill discharge rate versus time

Here we see the classic overshot and final stabilization of a constant filling control system
producing a steady state feedrate of 4 mtph. The mean residence time of material in the mill is
H/M = 130 seconds. In addition we can track the various sizes to determine how long they stay
in this mill (see Figure 9) and look for evidence of segregation (see Figure 10).

0.025
0.25
Mass Fraction of Original Mill

12 mm
0.20 18 mm
0.020 P12mm
P18mm
24 mm
P24mm
Mass Fraction

0.15
Contents

All Sizes 0.015

0.10
0.010

0.05
0.005

0.00
0 10 20 30 40 0.000
0 3 6 9 12 15 18
Time That Particle Remained in Mill, sec Residence Time, sec

Figure 9. Residence time distributions for mill and pulp lifter

From these plots one can see that the smallest particles (in this case 12mm) initially exit the mill
slower than other sizes. The fraction in the pulp lifter versus time suggests that a significant
portion of these fines re-enter the mill through the grate and gradually, revolution by revolution
(each peak depicted on the right hand side of the figure) the mass remaining decreases until
about 9 revolutions at which point virtually no material which was initially in the pulp lifter
continues to exist. Figure 10 shows the axial distribution of particles versus time.

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 Time

Figure 10. A series of snapshots showing segregation of particles and balls

From these figures it is evident that segregation occurs axially for both the material moving
through the mill and the balls. These results call into question previous assumptions concerning
the state of mixing in the mill.

The next series of simulations were designed to quantify the effects of pulp lifter design and
grate opening on mill performance relative to the base case. As seen in Table 2 if one modifies
the pulp lifter making them curved to facilitate discharge, but does not alter the grate size, very
little change in throughput is observed.

Table 2. Summary of Phase I Simulation Results

Pulp Lifter Grate Opening Grate Angle Power Recycle MTPH
Straight Small 15 509 75.3 4.00
Curved Small 15 513 23.1 4.20
Straight Large 15 511 66.3 4.90
Curved Large 15 512 28.8 5.10
Straight Small 7.5 483 80.2 3.60
Straight Small 0 473 79.1 3.20

This outcome suggests a grate limited situation for transport. If on the other hand the grates are
opened up to 40mm with the straight pulp lifters the feedrate goes up to 4.9 mtph while for the
curved pulp lifter case the feedrate increases even more to 5.1 mtph. Thus the apparently “more
efficient” curved discharge mechanism only results in a throughput advantage if the grates are
adequately designed to present finished product at the correct rate.

The last few simulations shown in Table 2 are concerned with cone angle. Here we see that as
the cone angle is decreased both the feedrate and the power draw decrease.

The second phase of this study dealt with simultaneous simulation of breakage using DGB. Here
the computations are even more demanding (see Table 1), so only one simulation was performed

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for the base case one for a soft ore. In these simulations only one size particle larger than the
grate opening was used. The breakage behavior simulated for soft particles with different
specific energy inputs in an “impact test” is shown in Figure 11. In fact impact events involving
velocities less than 2.0 m/s produce internal damage but not breakage. Events involving
velocities less than 1.0mm don’t even produce any damage.

velocity = 2.5 m/s velocity = 4.0 m/s

100
Cumulative Percentage Finer

90
80
70
60
50
40
Soft Material, 4.0 m/s
30 Soft Material, 2.5 m/s

20
0.00 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04
Fragment Size, m

Figure 11. Product size distributions from simulated impact tests for soft material

Results of the full mill simulation for this case result in the impact energy spectra shown in
Figures 12 (amount of impact energy delivered by impact events of different magnitudes).

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 8.00E-01

7.00E-01
Total Impact Energy (W/kg)

6.00E-01
P24mm

5.00E-01

4.00E-01

3.00E-01

2.00E-01

1.00E-01

0.00E+00
0.001 0.01 0.1 1 10 100 1000 10000
Single Collision Energy (J/kg)

Figure 12. Energy spectra from full mill simulation for 50 mm

particles at 4.00 mtph for soft material.

In this case we found that the average of breakage events weighted according to the amount of
impact energy delivered over the range from 0.001 to 100 J/kg (Herbst and Lo 1992) yielded a
realistic product size distribution for this material and feedrate. Thus it has been possible to
simulate all the essential elements of the transport and grinding process based on fundamental
considerations. In the process we have learned a great deal about fundamental relationships
between design variables and performance.

CONCLUSIONS

This paper has shown that it is possible to model an entire mill using multi physics, high fidelity
simulations. In this study transport and breakage in a mill were described for the first time from
a very fundamental perspective. This fundamental modeling tool was used to investigate the
influence of certain mill design variables on performance. This analysis suggest that a large
number of evaluations of this type can and should be carried out in the future, these include,
validation for complex breakage mechanisms including chipping and abrasion influence of slurry
properties validation of the combined model in pilot plant of plant settings. The opportunities to
apply these tools for performance improvement seem to be vast indeed.

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REFERENCES

Cleary, P.W., 1998, “Predicting Charge Motion, Power Draw, Segregation Wear and Particle
Breakage in Ball Mills Using Discrete Element Methods” Minerals Engineering 11, p. 1061.

Herbst, J.A. and Lo, Y.C., 1992, "Microscale Comminution Studies for Ball Mill Modeling,"
Comminution - Theory and Practice, Ed. S. Kawatra, SME, Littleton, CO, pp. 137-152.

Mishra, B.K. and Rajamani, R.K., 1992, “The Discrete Method for the Simulation of Ball Mills”,
Applied Math Modeling, 16, p. 598.

Nordell, L., Potapov, A., and Herbst, J., 2001, “Comminution Simulation Using Discrete
Element Method Approach – From Single Particle Breakage to Full Scale SAG Mill Operation”,
SAG 2001, Vancouver, v. IV, p. 235.

Potapov, A. and Campbell, C., 1996, “A Three Dimensional Simulation of Brittle Solid
Fracture”, International Journal of Modern Physics, 7 (5), p. 717.

Tsuji, Y., Kawaguchi, T. and Tanaka, T., 1995, “Discrete Particle Simulation of Two
Dimensional Fluidized Bed”, Powder Technology, 77.

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