PBM of an industrial-scale vertical wet stirred media mill (HIGMill): Assessment of back-calculation and hybrid methods

Bilgili E., Toprak A., ALTUN D., ALTUN O.

POWDER TECHNOLOGY, 2024 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Publication Date: 2024
  • Doi Number: 10.1016/j.powtec.2024.119760
  • Journal Name: POWDER TECHNOLOGY
  • Journal Indexes: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus, Academic Search Premier, PASCAL, Aerospace Database, Applied Science & Technology Source, Chemical Abstracts Core, Chimica, Communication Abstracts, Compendex, Computer & Applied Sciences, INSPEC, Metadex, Civil Engineering Abstracts
  • Keywords: Back-calculation, Copper ore regrind, Microhydrodynamic analysis, Particle breakage, Population balance model, Wet stirred media mill
  • Hacettepe University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

An industrial -scale vertical wet stirred media mill (HIGMill) was simulated via a population balance model (PBM). Feed and product particle size distributions (PSDs) of copper ore were measured at various steady-state conditions. The PBM incorporated 1-large - 2-small-tanks model and power -law specific breakage rate function S i . Parameters of S i and three non -normalized cumulative breakage functions B ij were estimated by a backcalculation method with global optimization. In a hybrid method, breakage index t n - based B ij , obtained from laboratory drop -weight tests, were input to the optimizer to estimate S i . Results suggest that higher rotor speed, lower solids loading, and use of steel rotor vs. rubber rotor and coarser beads led to faster breakage. The backcalculation with the modified Tavares B ij achieved the best fits, whereas the hybrid method ranked third. The predictions by all models were reasonably good. We demonstrated pros/cons of the PBM approaches and their parameters ' plausibility via a microhydrodynamic scaling analysis.