Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Abstract. Milling is an important operation in many industries, such as mining and pharmaceutical. Although the comminu-
tion process during milling has been extensively studied, the material fragmentation mechanisms in a mill are still not well
understood partly because of the lack of an understanding on the local stressing and dynamic information under operational
conditions in mills.
This paper presents a DEM simulation of particle dynamics and impact events in a centrifugal impact pin mill. The main
focus is the statistical characteristics of the dominant stressing modes during the milling process. The frequency, velocity and
force of the different impact events between particles and mill components, or between particles, are analysed.
Keywords: Milling, Discrete elements, Comminution
PACS: 81.20.Wk, 07.05.Tp, 79.20.Ap, 81.05.Rm
935
stiffness [12]. A Velocity Verlet algorithm is used for the
time integration scheme [13, 14].
936
of pins, the main statistical parameters are presented in
Table 2.
It is seen that the number of impacts reduces almost
linearly from the inner Ring 1 to the outer Ring 5, except
for the innermost ring which registered a smaller number
of impacts than the next Ring 2, probably because the
particle velocity is still relatively low before the first
impact with a pin in the first ring.
The distribution of the particle-pin impact force and
velocity over the pins is almost uniform. The frequency
of the impact normal force and velocity for each ring of
pins are shown in Figures 5 and 6.
FIGURE 2. Evolution of average impact normal force when
particles pass through the impact zone
937
TABLE 2. Statistics of impact events in different rings of pins
Parameter Ring 1 Ring 2 Ring 3 Ring 4 Ring 5
No. of pins 60 66 72 76 80
Max. No. of impacts per pin 6101 6915 4858 3229 1315
Min. No. of impacts per pin 5289 6010 4273 2817 1119
Mean No. of impacts per pin 5639 6386 4564 3026 1212
stdev No. of impacts per pin 149.1 178.1 116.1 91.4 45.2
Mean normal impact force (N) 14.95 19.63 23.43 27.00 28.52
stdev normal impact force (N) 12.88 14.05 16.27 17.64 18.15
Mean relative impact velocity (m/s) 3.51 4.62 5.51 6.35 6.69
stdev relative impact velocity (m/s) 3.15 3.47 4.02 4.37 4.53
second layer the number of impacts reduces significant- 2. M. Meier, E. John, D. Wieckhusen, W. Wirth, and
ly, indicating that the outer rings of pins may not be as W. Peukert, European Journal of Pharmaceutical
effective in reducing the particle size as the inner rings. Sciences 34, 45–55 (2008).
3. M. Ghadiri, Z. Ning, S. Kenter, and E. Puik, Chemical
The results presented here are all in the normal impact
Engineering Science 55, 5445–5456 (2000).
direction. Further investigation is being undertaken to 4. G. Mucsi, Chemical Engineering Research and Design
investigate the characteristics in the tangential direction, 86, 395–400 (2008), ISSN 0263-8762.
the resultant impact velocity and force as well as other 5. T. Yokoyama, and Y. Inoue, “Chapter 10 Selection of Fine
quantities which can shed more lights into the particle Grinding Mills,” in Particle Breakage, edited by M. G.
dynamics and impact characteristics in the mill. Agba D. Salman, and M. J. Hounslow, Elsevier Science
B.V., 2007, vol. 12 of Handbook of Powder Technology,
pp. 487–508.
6. L. Vogel, and W. Peukert, Powder Technology 129,
CONCLUSIONS 101–110 (2003).
7. M. S. Powell, and A. T. McBride, Minerals Engineering
This paper has presented a DEM analysis of a centrifugal 19, 1013–1021 (2006).
impact pin mill. The impact events have been analysed 8. H. Hertz, Journal für die reine und angewandte
with a focus on the characteristics of the impact event, Mathematik 92, 156–171 (1882).
9. S. Ji, and H. H. Shen, J. Engrg. Mech. 132, 1252–1259
force and velocity which can be used to characterise (2006).
the mill function. This is a preliminary study aiming 10. S. Luding, Granular Matter 10, 235–246 (2008).
to develop an understanding of the particle dynamics in 11. P. Cundall, and O. Strack, Geotechnique 29, 47–65
the milling process. It has been shown that the particles (1979).
are under the effect of multiple impacts with different 12. J. Rojek, C. Labra, O. Su, and E. Oñate, Int. J. of Solids
objects during the process and the pins on the outer and Structures 49, 1497–1517 (2012).
13. K. Bathe, and E. Wilson, Numerical Methods in Finite
rings are not as effective as those in the inner rings for Element Analysis, Prentice Hall, 1976.
the mill configuration studied. The significance of these 14. H. Kruggel-Emden, M. Sturma, S. Wirtza, and
findings will be further investigated considering particle V. Scherera, Computers & Chemical Engineering
breakage in the simulation, leading to a deeper scientific 32, 2263–2279 (2008).
understanding of the grindability of granular solids.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the
European Community under the Marie Curie Initial
Training Network, the support of the International Fine
Particles Research Institute and useful discussion from
Hosokawa Micron Ltd.
REFERENCES
1. S. Antonyuk, M. Khanal, J. Tomas, S. Heinrich, and
L. Mörl, Chemical Engineering and Processing: Process
Intensification 45, 838–856 (2006).
938