Incorporation of a Fractal Breakage Mode into the Broken Rock Model

Dosti Dihalu and Bas Geelhoed

Purpose of this presentation

To investigate how the variance changes with particle size reduction (comminution)
Broken Rock Model (Minnit 2007) the breakage pattern of a particle is regular, the fragments will all have the same size and weight
Here proposed: Fractal Broken Rock Model the breakage pattern of a particle is a fractal, the fragments will have unequal sizes and weights

Outline
1. Introduction 1a. Sampling 1b. Theory of Sampling (TOS) 1c. Developments in TOS 2. Methodology: FBRM 3. Worked-out example 4. Future Work 5. Conclusions

1. Introduction
1a. Sampling 1b. Theory of Sampling (TOS) 1c. Developments in TOS

1. Introduction Variance Estimator

V 1 q q c b a tc h M fg c D M KD M
V = the relative variance q = the inclusion probability of each particle cbatch = the concentration of property of interest in the population Mbatch = the (total) mass (or weight) of the population mi = the mass of the i-th particle in the population ci = the concentration of property of interest in the i-th particle of the population f = shape factor (unitless quantity) g = size range factor (unitless quantity) = the liberation factor (unitless quantity) c = the mineralogical factor (specified in the same units as density, e.g. g/cm3 or kg/m3) D = nominal size dimension of the particle (specified in units of length) M = mass of the sample (specified in units of mass) K = fg cD3-b b = an exponent that can be selected freely, but in practice will be set to a value that describes how the variance prediction changes with D
b 3 2 2 b a tc h N b a tc h

m i ( c i c b a tc h )
2

(A )

i 1

(B )

(C )

2. Methodology: FBRM
A. particle undergoes N breaking stages B. particle is broken in fragments by generating a random number (r0) between 0 and M0
(A)

(B)

C. 2 new fragments (mass M0,1 = r0 ,mass M0,2 = M0-M0,1 D. each of the 2 fragments is broken (breakage point of fragment M0,i = r0,i ) in four fragments of mass M0,1,1, M0,1,2, M0,2,1, and M0,2,2

(C)

(D)

Model yields 2N fragments of varying particle mass mi

2. Methodology: FBRM Program

INPUT Particle mass Particle concentration Purity of inclusion Number of breaking generations Mode (BRM/FBRM)

OUTPUT Fragment number Fragment mass Fragment concentration

3. Worked-Out Example

population A: 15 particles (c1, m1) and 15 others(c2, m2) (step 2) population B by breaking population A according to FBRM (step 3) Calculate sampling variance of population B (Gys formula). (step 4) Calculate for each particle i of population B D and D. i (step 5) Repeat steps 2, 3, and 4 for varying breaking generations N (step 6) Plot the Var(FSE) vs D and deduce the K and b value graphically.
(step 1)

3. Worked-Out Example -Concentration

3. Worked-out example
Starting population:
Particle number
1-15

Particle mass Particle Purity of concentration inclusion

50 20 0.99

16-30

50

0.99

D indicates the 95th percentile value of the total collection of obtained Dis (Gy, 1979). In this experiment, the maximum number of breaking generations (Nmax) was set to Nmax=10.

3. Worked-out example
Number of Breakages N
1 2

Particle mass

Particle concentration
0.45 0.24 0.20 0.99 0.99 0.13 0 0 0 0.38 0.99 0.80 0 0

37.63 12.37 9.45 10.05 4.73 25.77 0.95 0.13 1.55 35.21 3.25 4.03 4.75 0.13

3. Worked-out example -Variance vs Diameter

-2,8 -3

-3,2

LOG (Var(FSE))

-3,4

-3,6

-3,8

LOG(VAR(FSE)) = 0.88 * LOG(D) - 3.53

-0,3 -0,2 -0,1 0 0,1 0,2 0,3 0,4 0,5 0,6 0,7

-4

LOG(D)

3. Worked-out example -Interpretation of Results

It can be concluded that - at least in this experiment- either the parameter b, or the parameter K, or both b and K at the same time, depend on the particle size D. Based on this graph, the best choice of parameter b (that provides the best fit) is the value of b=0.88 2.5 (see also FranoisBongaron & Gy, 2002)

4. Future Work
Using the FBRM to investigate how the parameters f, g, , and c from Gys theory change with D (Equation 1B). Upscaling the one-dimensional fractal breakage model to a three-dimensional fractal breakage model. Implementing more realistic particle concentration profiles in addition to the step function that is used here. Implementing a more realistic way of assigning a diameter (Di) to each output fragment.

5. Conclusions
A methodology is presented, based on the principles of the BRM as put forward by Minnit (2007), but taking into account the fractal nature of the particle size distribution This new method can be applied to give a description of the particle size distribution after the breakage of the particles(FBRM). Input of the FBRM is a list of properties of a single parent particle; the output is a list of properties of the fragments from the parent particle after breakage. The degree of comminution is controlled by a single parameter, the number of breaking generations (denoted as N).