Grinding experiments on the sieved-size fraction of silica sand in a planetary mill are carried out. It is found that for large balls (≥∅4mm), the breakage of she fine size fraction can be described by first-order law, but when the particle size is larger than the ball size, the breakage is not of the first-order, but even for smaller balls, the breakage is completely non-first-order. Reasons for this non-first-order breakage are experimentally investigated and discussed. The specific rate of breakage of particles is described by the equation
Si=
a·
xia·
Q(
z), where
Q(
z) is the probability function ranging from 1 to 0, which has been used by Austin for a tumbling ball mill. In this equation,
S has a maximum value, and the particle size of the maximum is related to the ball diameter by
xm=
k1dB, where
k1=0.05 irrespective of the specific gravity of the balls. In another words a 20:1 ball diameter/particle size ratio can give the optimum grinding condition for planetary milling, which is found to be the same as in stirred ball milling, but it is different from tumbling ball milling and vibration ball milling. The effect of the diameter and the specific gravity of balls can be expressed as
a=
k3(ρ
B/
dB0.35).
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