Optimization of Stirred Mills by a Fusion of Experiment and Computer Simulation

Abstract

The DEM (Discrete Element Method) technique for simulating the grinding media motion in a wet stirred mill has been developed. Additional parameters related to the flow of slurry inside a grinding chamber have been introduced to the standard DEM code. The grinding beads motion was simulated and compared with real motion recorded with a video camera. From the beads motion the specific impact energy of the beads was calculated and compared with the grinding rate constant of a gibbsite powder sample obtained experimentally. It was shown that the correlation between experimental and simulated data makes possible to predict the grinding performance of the mill for given conditions on the base of the computer simulation.