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Simulation of overflow ball mill discharge and trommel flow using combined
DEM and SPH

Conference Paper · September 2015

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VANCOUVER 2015

SIMULATION OF OVERFLOW BALL MILL DISCHARGE AND TROMMEL FLOW

USING COMBINED DEM AND SPH MODELLING

*M.D. Sinnott1, P.W. Cleary1 and R.D. Morrison2

1
CSIRO Digital Productivity and Manufacturing Flagships
Locked Bag 10
Clayton South, Victoria, 3169, Australia
(*Corresponding author: paul.cleary@csiro.au)
2
Julius Kruttschnitt Mineral Research Centre,
the University of Queensland
40 Isles Road, Indooroopilly, Brisbane, QLD 4068, Australia

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SIMULATION OF MILL DISCHARGE AND TROMMEL FLOW USING COMBINED

DEM AND SPH MODELLING

ABSTRACT

Discharge of pebbles, finer rock, ball scats and slurry from mills and its flow through trommels,
and into other processing operations has strong impacts on overflow ball mill performance. Modelling of
the coarser rock components is best done using the Discrete Element Method (DEM) while modelling of
the slurry component is best done using a compatible particle method such as SPH (Smoothed Particle
Hydrodynamics). The combination of these allows both critical components and their interactions to be
included in flow models for the mill and discharge arrangements. Information from such models can be
used to both understand the flows in these typically closed environments and to optimise the design for
improved performance and better wear life. In this paper, a typical discharge/trommel arrangement for an
overflow ball mill will be demonstrated using this approach and the opportunities for use in process
improvement will be discussed.

KEYWORDS

Mill discharge, trommel, screening, DEM, SPH, slurry

INTRODUCTION

Robust control of size reduction at each of the stages through a comminution circuit is an
important factor for the effective performance of that circuit. For example, supplying excess oversize
product out of a SAG mill to downstream grinding and separation stages can reduce their efficiency.
Trommel screens are often included as a classification stage at the discharge end of AG, SAG and ball
mills to ensure correct sizing of product from the mill and to separate out oversize material and ball scats
from the undersize product/slurry stream that passes through the screen apertures for further processing
downstream. Scats are typically removed as waste and oversize material returned to the mill for regrinding.

A trommel is a rotary cylindrical device that is rigidly attached to the discharge end of the mill. It
contains moulded screen panels or wire mesh and can have different aperture configurations in each axial
section. They are cheaper to manufacture and have a longer wear life than vibrating screens, and low noise.
However, they have reduced operating capacity compared with vibrating screens since at any time the
majority of a trommel screen is not in contact with the material being screened. They are also subject to
aperture plugging and are therefore operated wet under high flow conditions to minimise this. For mineral
processing applications, trommels are often operated horizontally or at low inclinations and therefore spiral
baffles are often included to agitate the slurry flow, to separate oversize particles out of the viscous slurry,
to enhance the likelihood of undersize particulates coming into contact with panel apertures, and to propel
the oversize forwards to the end of the trommel. Screening efficiency for a trommel depends on the
residence time of material based on the length and inclination of the screen, the flow inside the trommel
(see Ottino and Khakar, 2000 for details about slumping, cataracting and centrifuging regimes in rotating
drums) which depends on the trommel speed and diameter, the aperture configuration, and the details of
the material discharging from the mill and feeding the trommel. The details of the mill discharge depend on
the slurry/solids flow field, the axial size distributions of the ore and balls, and the presence and size of the
slurry pool. The latter can lead to significant viscosity variation from thicker slurry inside the charge to
more dilute slurry inside the pool. This can lead to reduced throughput and a coarser grind (Powell et al.,
2006) and therefore influence the details of the discharge rate and composition feeding the trommel.

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Lack of understanding about how the flow inside a mill (for a given ore material) influences the
discharge of product out of a mill, through a trommel and into the next stages of processing in the circuit
makes it difficult to optimally customize the trommel screen for an end user’s needs. The low operating
capacity of a trommel screen makes it a potential bottleneck in a comminution circuit. Additionally,
catastrophic failure requiring replacement of a trommel is an extremely serious maintenance issue and can
cause major problems for a site.

Numerical modelling (such as Discrete Element Method and Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics)
of solids/fluid flow inside mills and trommels capable of predicting product size distribution, mill power,
discharge rates, liner damage, and screening efficiency are important for improved operation of milling
(Morrison et al. 2014, Cleary et al. 2015a, Franke et al. 2015, Jonsén et al. 2015), crushing (Cleary et al.
2015b, Delaney et al. 2015 and Sinnott et al. 2015) and separation (Fernandez et al. 2011, Zhou et al. 2011,
Kruggel-Emden et al. 2014, Jahani et al. 2015) operations. Such tools are now at an advanced stage of
development and can readily be used for making design choices.

The following is a study of the discharge of balls and fluid slurry out of the end of an industrial
scale overflow ball mill and into a trommel using a 2-way coupled DEM/SPH model where DEM is used
to represent the ball charge and SPH for the fluid slurry containing the fine product. No coarse (oversize)
particulates are currently included in the model. The flow behaviour of each of the phases inside the mill,
discharging through the mill trunion and flow onto and through the trommel are each discussed in detail.

COMPUTATIONAL METHODS

DEM is a simulation method that models particulate systems whose motions are dominated by
collisions. This involves following the motion of every particle or object in the flow and modelling each
collision between the particles and between the particles and their environment. The algorithm has three
main stages:

1. A search grid is used to periodically build a near-neighbour interaction list that contains all the
particle pairs and object-particle pairs that are likely to experience collisions in the short term.
2. The forces on each pair of colliding particles and/or boundary objects are evaluated in their local
reference frame using a suitable contact force model, and then transformed into the simulation.
3. All the forces and torques on each particle and object are summed and the resulting equations of
motion are integrated to give the resulting motion of these bodies.

The implementation used here is described in more detail in Cleary (2004, 2009). The entities are
allowed to overlap and the amount of overlap ∆x, and normal vn and tangential vt relative velocities
determine the collisional forces via a contact force law. We use a linear spring-dashpot model where the
normal and tangential forces are given by:

Fn = −kn ∆x + Cnvn , (1)

Ft = min{mFn , kt ∑ vt ∆t + Ct vt } (2)

The normal force consists of a linear spring to provide the repulsive force and a dashpot to
dissipate a proportion of the relative kinetic energy. The maximum overlap between particles is determined
by the stiffness kn of the spring in the normal direction. Typically, average overlaps of < 0.5% of the
particle diameter are desirable. The normal damping coefficient Cn is chosen to give the required
coefficient of restitution ε. The vector force Ft and velocity vt are defined in the plane tangent to the surface
at the contact point. The tangential summation term represents an incremental spring that stores energy
from the relative tangential motion and models the elastic tangential deformation of the contacting surfaces,
while the dashpot dissipates energy and models tangential plastic. The total tangential force Ft is limited by
the Coulomb frictional limit mFn, at which point the surface contact shears and the particles begin to slide
over each other.

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The SPH method uses a meshless spatial discretisation to convert systems of PDEs into coupled
systems of ODEs that can then be solved using suitable time integration methods (see Monaghan, 2005 for
a review of this method). For fluids, the continuity equation is
dρ a
= ∑ mb (v a − v b ) • ∇Wab (3)
dt b
where ρa is the density of particle a with velocity va and mb is the mass of particle b. We denote the
position vector from particle b to particle a by rab = ra − rb and the velocity difference by v ab = v a − vb .
Wab = W (rab , h ) is the interpolation kernel with smoothing length h evaluated at distance rab . The SPH
method variant used here for fluids is a quasi-compressible formulation with an equation of state
specifying the relationship between particle density and fluid pressure. A form suitable for incompressible
fluids is:
 ρ γ  (4)
P = P0   − 1
 ρ 0  
where P0 is the magnitude of the pressure given by

γ P0
= 100V 2 = c s2 (5)
ρ0
and V is the characteristic or maximum fluid velocity and c is the speed of sound. This means that the
sound speed is ten times the characteristic speed and ensures that the density variation is less than 1% and
that the flow is close to incompressible. ρ0 is the reference density and γ =7.

The SPH form of the momentum equation becomes the acceleration for each particle a:

dv a  P P  ξ 4 m a m b v ab ρab 
= g − ∑ mb  b2 + a2  − ∇ Wab
2  a
(6)
 ρ b ρ a  ρ a ρ b (m a + m b ) ρab + η 
2
dt b

where Pa and ma are pressure and viscosity of particle a. Here ξ is a factor associated with the viscous term,
η is a small parameter used to smooth out the singularity at rab = 0 and g is gravity.

For details of the coupling of the DEM and SPH methods, see Cleary (2015).

MILL AND TROMMEL CONFIGURATION

The model consists of an idealized geometry of the last 1.5 m axial end section of a 6 m diameter
overflow ball mill with a trommel screen attached for collecting the mill discharge as shown in Figure 1.
This geometry was built from details integrated from a range of manufacturer website sources and does not
correspond to any specific mill/trommel configuration. This suffices to demonstrate the operation of the
model in being able to predict slurry/scats flow behavior and to enhance generic understanding of ball
overflow/trommel processes. The model can be used for assessing specific operational issues and for
improving equipment design. A cutaway view of the ball mill showing the wave liner in the belly region of
the mill and the discharge head lifter bars extending into the trunnion (which are intended to guide
escaping balls back into the grinding chamber) is shown in Figure 2. To further prevent balls escaping the
mill, the discharge trunnion contains a retaining spiral which is intended to allow slurry to pass through and
help guide larger balls back into the grinding chamber. A side view of the trunnion containing a 1.5
revolution retaining spiral and an arrow indicating the direction of discharge from the mill is shown in
Figure 3. The dimensions of the overflow ball mill are given in Table 1. The mill trunnion extends a short
distance inside the trommel screen to prevent material splashing back out of the feed end of the trommel.
Figure 4 shows two views of the trommel screen from either end. The dimensions of the trommel are given
in Table 2. Dam rings are included on the feed and discharge ends of the trommel to further retain material

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inside and increase residence time for screening. The trommel geometry contains three spirals of baffles
which are equi-spaced around the inside of the cylindrical body. Each spiral consists of 7 baffles
distributed in the axial direction. There are no baffles in the first ring of panels ensuring that the mill
trunnion does not overlap the baffles at the trommel feed end. Each individual baffle is mounted on a
single panel and oriented diagonally across the panel. The dam ring at the trommel discharge end has slots
cut into it adjacent to the end of each of the spirals in order to permit the collection of balls/scats that exit
the trommel.

For the DEM setup of the ball charge, the mill chamber is initially filled with a 34% volumetric
fill of ball sizes ranging from 32 – 65 mm. The full ball size distribution is given in Table 3. Here, we are
not attempting to resolve the coarse oversize rocks in the charge and instead assume that all rocks exiting
the mill are in the form of fine product suspended in the viscous slurry. The mill and trommel rotate
together at 75% mill critical speed (13.2 rpm) until the flow of ball charge within the mill is at steady state.
The SPH fluid slurry is then added. Fluid is filled automatically within the pores of the ball charge in
regions where the ball solid fraction is greater than 0.15. Additional fluid is added above the toe. This
produces an overfilled mill with a large slurry pool at the toe and leads to substantial overflow through the
trunion and into the trommel. This is done to demonstrate large scale slurry flow through the system. The
total fluid volume in the mill is 12,140 L. Further details about the DEM and SPH models are given in
Table 4. The principle material parameter controlling the interaction of slurry and media is the slurry
viscosity which has a representative value of 0.3 Pa s. This is a fairly high viscosity and results from the
very high solids loading in the slurry. For the 2-way coupled DEM/SPH simulation, the slurry/media flow
inside the mill equilibrates within 2.5 s of simulation time and (following an initial surge of slurry out of
the mill and through the trommel to the discharge end) the flow inside the trommel fully equilibrates by 4 s.

Figure 1 - Overflow ball mill / trommel geometry views obliquely from above the discharge end of the mill.

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Figure 2 - Overflow ball mill grinding chamber with extended discharge head lifter bars.

Figure 3 - Discharge trunnion with ball retaining spiral. The direction of slurry discharge out of the mill is
indicated. The front half of the geometry is omitted to allow the internal structure to be viewed.

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a)

b)

Figure 4 - Views of the trommel screen from a) the feed end, and b) the discharge end. These show the
screen panel configuration, end wall dam rings, forward spirals of baffles, and discharge end holes for scats
removal.

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Table 1 – Ball mill dimensions

Overflow ball mill Dimensions

Mill diameter 6m
Rotation speed 75% critical (13.18 rpm)
clockwise (as viewed
Rotation of mill
from feed end)
# Belly lifters (wave profile) 36
Belly liner plate thickness 100 mm
Belly lifter height (peak to trough) 70 mm
Belly lifter width (measured at mid-height) 250 mm
Axial length of belly section 1.5 m
Conical end wall – slant angle 7.5 deg
Discharge head lifter bar height 150 mm
Discharge head lifter bar base width 150 mm
Discharge head lifter bar face angle 10 deg
Length of discharge head lifter bar extension
130 mm
into the trunnion opening
Diameter of discharge opening 2m
Length of discharge trunnion 1m
Distance trunnion extends inside trommel 200 mm
Retaining spiral counter-clockwise
Retaining spiral – height 100 mm
Retaining spiral – thickness 40 mm
Retaining spiral – # revolutions 1.5

Table 2 – Trommel dimensions

Trommel screen Dimensions

Trommel diameter (inner) 2.32 m
Trommel length 2.48 m
Polydeck panel configuration (circ x axial) 24 x 8
Polydeck panel (length x width x depth) 304.8 x 304.8 x 30 mm
Panel - aperture configuration (circ x axial) 2x5
Panel rectangular aperture dimension 120 x 30 mm
Dam ring height 50 mm
Dam ring thickness 20 mm
End wall dam ring slots 304.8 mm wide
Spiral of baffles clockwise
# Spirals of baffles 3
# Spiral revolutions 0.2917
Baffle orientation to axial direction 45 deg
Baffle height 150 mm
Baffle thickness 20 mm

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Table 3 – DEM ball size distribution

Ball size class (mm) Mass fraction

56 – 60 0.1333
48 – 56 0.3333
40 – 48 0.28
32 – 40 0.2533

Table 4 – DEM/SPH model details

Model details Value

% Fill of ball charge 34%
# DEM balls in simulation 134,800
Total mass of ball charge 47.04 tonnes
DEM spring constant 106 kg/m
DEM timestep 5.45 x 10-5 s
Ball density (sg) 7.25
Ball friction coefficient 0.4
Ball restitution coefficient 0.8
#SPH fluid particles 3,598,000
Initial fluid volume in mill 12,140 L
SPH particle separation 15 mm
SPH sound speed 80 m/s
SPH timestep 1.09 x 10-4 s
Fluid density (sg) 1.875
Fluid viscosity 0.3 Pa.s

PARTICLE AND SLURRY FLOW IN MILL AND TROMMEL

Flow of charge and slurry in the grinding chamber

Figure 5 shows the charge for the coupled balls/slurry DEM/SPH simulation (in blue) overlaid
with the charge for a completely dry media DEM simulation (in red). There are some mild but important
differences in the shape of the charge due to the influence of the fluid drag. The addition of the slurry drag
forces on the grinding media results in a slightly lower shoulder, reduced ball velocities in the avalanche
zone leading to a thicker surface layer of media at the base of the avalanching slope (just inside the slurry
pool) and a much lower toe position. Near the end wall, the lower shoulder also results in the cataracting
stream of balls travelling on lower trajectories so that they impact closer to the toe.

The flow behavior inside the mill grinding chamber is shown in Figure 6 for both the grinding
media and the slurry for the fully coupled DEM/SPH wet simulation. Figure 6a shows that (away from the
end wall) the surface of the ball charge has the typical kidney-shape common to avalanching flows in
tumbling mills. The slurry pool extends from the middle of the avalanching surface across to the mill shell
above the toe, filling the entire toe region. A low flow (blue) band along the centre of the charge separates
the layers of balls at the near the mill shell which are carried upwards by the belly lifters from toe to
shoulder, from the downward avalanching layers that flow from the shoulder back down to the toe. The
peak speeds of the avalanching balls occur at the middle of the avalanching zone where the balls enter the
slurry pool. Closer to the end wall, the charge shoulder is higher and the balls are thrown higher into the air

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by the steeper faced discharge head lifter bars to form cataracting streams which fall downward into the
slurry pool and onto the toe. Figure 6b shows the corresponding view with the slurry flow coloured by its
speed. The fluid is predominantly dragged around inside the pore spaces of the solid charge so the flow
field for slurry is necessarily quite similar to that of the balls. The large slurry pool is mostly quiescent
except near the end wall where the lifter bars regularly plunge downward into the slurry pool generating
recirculation regions. Near the end wall, the slurry is also lifted and thrown from the shoulder by the lifters.

Figure 5 - Comparison between DEM only (dry milling) simulation coloured red and DEM/SPH simulation
(wet milling) coloured blue to show the effect of fluid drag on the charge location in the mill.

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a)

b)

Figure 6 - a) Flow field of the solid charge in the grinding chamber, and b) flow field of the slurry in the
grinding chamber, coloured by speed respectively and viewed from the feed end of the mill.

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a)

b)

Figure 7 - a) Saturation of the charge in the grinding chamber, and b) location of fluid based on local fluid
fraction. The view is from the feed end of the mill.

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a)

b)

Figure 8 - a) Saturation of the charge in the grinding chamber, and b) location of fluid based on local fluid
fraction. The view is from the discharge end of the mill showing the influence of the discharge head lifter
bars.

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Figure 7 shows the distribution of fluid throughout the mill charge. In Figure 7a, the balls are
coloured by their saturation level from 0% (dry) to 100% (fully saturated) while in Figure 7b the slurry is
coloured by its fluid fraction (red being pure slurry and dark blue being 0.4 which is around the maximum
pore fraction for moderate size distribution spherical particles). Most of the solid charge is fully saturated
with fluid occupying all of the available pore space. Near the surface there is some drainage of fluid under
gravity through the avalanching layer of balls so the fluid shoulder is lower than the solid charge shoulder
and the upper surface regions of the charge are moderately less saturated. In contrast, the slurry pool is
almost entirely fluid except near the end wall where there is a sparse scattering of cataracting balls falling
into the pool and settling onto the toe.

Figure 8 shows the same distributions with a view from the discharge end of the mill in order to
show the influence of the discharge head lifter bars. The distribution of balls and slurry on these lifters and
their flow from them as they rise with the mill rotation is notably different. For example, consider a lifter
moving from the 6 o’clock position (pointing vertically down) up to the 3 o’clock position (horizontal), the
spaces between it and its adjacent lifters do not entirely fill with balls and slurry occupies the remaining
space near the centre of the mill. At the 4 o’clock position, slurry begins to drain from the inner radial end
of the lifter bar before the balls begin to flow radially inward. As the lifter moves higher, slurry then flows
axially inward off of the sides of the lifter and away from the discharge end wall. In contrast, the balls
lifted by the lifter bars do not start rolling or sliding down the lifters until they are well above the 3 o’clock
position. Balls remain on the lifter up to the 12 o’clock position at which point the slurry has already
completely drained.

Effect of discharge head lifter bars on discharge flow from the mill

Slurry containing fine ground product flows from mill into trommel by exiting from the grinding
chamber past the discharge head lifter bars and into the discharge trunnion. Some oversize material, which
could be scats and some occasional balls are also observed to exit the mill. Figure 9 shows only those balls
with axial speeds greater than 0.15 m/s (in the discharge direction) in order to show the trajectories of those
balls exiting the mill so as to be able to determine where they originate from and how they entered the
trunnion. Streams of cataracting balls thrown by the discharge head lifter bars do not appear to be directed
towards the discharge opening in flight and therefore do not tend to enter the trunnion. The lifter geometry
considered here has inclined sides so that balls and slurry flow off relatively easily back towards the
middle of the grinding chamber. There are a significant number of balls temporarily retained on the rising
head lifter bars (in the upper half of the mill) that then roll or slide down these lifters and into the trunnion.
Therefore rather than preventing balls escaping, the extended lifter bars appear to actually guide balls or
scats directly into the discharge opening. In practice, a solid “retaining ring” liner terminates the ends of
the lifter bars at the trunnion and redirects any balls sliding down the lifter bars back into the mill chamber.
A steady stream of balls can be seen (in Figure 9) falling from a lifter bar just before it reaches the 12
o’clock (vertical) position. These balls experience a small axial acceleration as they move radially inward
along the lifter due to the small conical angle of the end wall and enter the discharge opening with speeds
up to 0.3 m/s. For squarer lifter profiles, the retention of balls on the lifters and therefore the amount of
balls directed into the trunnion could potentially be even greater. A small scattering of balls is consistently
present along the floor of the trunnion near the discharge opening and move with reasonable axial speeds.
These are able to enter the trunnion because balls at the surface of the charge are sometimes carried around
and through the gaps between the lifter bars by strong pressure of the slurry overflow.

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Figure 9 - Flow of balls or scats into the discharge opening with particles coloured by their axial speed.
Only particles with speeds greater than or equal to 0.15 m/s are shown.

Figure 10 - Flow of slurry into the discharge opening and through the ball retaining spiral inside the
trunnion. The fluid is coloured by axial speed.

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a)

b)

Figure 11 - a) Flow of balls/scats over the ball retaining spiral and into the trommel, and b) flow of slurry
from discharge trunnion into the trommel. The colouring in each frame is by axial speed.

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Figure 10 shows the slurry flow into the trunnion is predominantly due to overflow of the slurry
pool. The ball stream falling from above originates from a different location to the slurry discharge. This
suggests potential for managing the strength of each stream somewhat independently via mill design
choices. The slurry discharge is a much stronger flow than that of the balls and exits the mill with peak
speeds of up to 1.5 m/s. As shown in Figure 8, slurry quickly flows off of the ends of the lifter bars (near
the centre of the mill) before they can achieve much height above the charge. Similarly the cataracting
fluid tends to flow back down onto the surface of the charge before flowing into the slurry pool. The steady
flow into the trunnion is asymmetric with a greater height of slurry discharging from near the charge
surface than near the quiescent part of the pool. This asymmetry also influences the distribution of balls
inside the trunnion so that they accumulate to one side. There is a high speed slurry flow (yellow/red) over
the centre of the spiral and a buildup of (dark blue) slowly moving fluid behind the spiral.

Figure 11 shows a side view of the flow of slurry and balls or scats along the trunnion and their
interaction with the ball retaining spiral. Figure 11a shows the balls coloured by their axial speed. This
demonstrates that the retaining spiral is working very effectively at collecting balls and returning them
back into the grinding chamber. This is apparent from the large number of balls (dark blue) accumulating
behind the spiral. Only very few balls are able to flow up and over the single turn of the spiral. These flow
directly into the trommel pushed by the pressure of the high speed slurry as shown in Figure 11b. A helical
spiral with more turns might provide greater capacity for catching balls along the full length of the trunnion
but the transport rate back into the mill would then be slower. Those balls which drop into the trunnion off
of the discharge head lifter bars fall from a significant height and the presence of the slurry will dampen
the rebound from collisions with the shell thereby limiting the ability of balls to bounce over the spiral. The
fluid drag on individual balls will be mass (and shape dependent) and this will influence the likelihood of
which balls/scats will be carried over the spiral by the slurry. So lighter ball scats may be more easily
transported over the spiral and into the trommel rather than larger unworn balls.

Flow of slurry, balls and scats in the trommel

The transient flow of the slurry from the trunnion into and along the trommel, and its interaction
with the rotating spiral baffles is shown in Figure 12 at three different times with the fluid coloured by
axial speed. There is a clear unsteady side-to-side sloshing of the flow inside the trunion which results from
the slurry interacting with the moving ball retaining spiral. This generates a sloshing component to the flow
as it enters the trommel which causes lateral spreading of the fluid. An important consequence is that this
increases the active area of the trommel that is available for screening. Any sloshing that continues along
the trommel might have some additional advantages of helping to clear blinded or plugged apertures.

At 4.5 s, the baffles enter the fluid just underneath the falling stream and begin to push the fluid
inside the trommel forwards and to the side in the direction of rotation of the trommel. The high speed flow
(yellow/red) is concentrated along the centre of the floor of the trommel but narrows (as a result of flow
through the screen panels) and decelerates approaching the next set of baffles upstream. In the direction of
rotation, slurry is carried sideways and upward by the trommel. It reduces in axial speed (blue) providing
greater contact time between slurry and apertures and more opportunity for slurry and product to pass
through the apertures. The fraction of trommel circumference actively involved in screening at any time
reduces from about 1/6 to about 1/8 along the length of the screen from start to end. At 5 s, the baffles are
moving axially at about 0.16 m/s, which is much slower than the slurry. This means that the high speed
slurry will feel the baffles as obstructions and flow up and over them. In addition the baffles force the fluid
sideways so that the fluid height along the side of the trommel is higher in Figure 12b. At 5.5 s, the rotating
baffles lift the fluid upwards. This leads to axial acceleration of slurry forwards and down the length of the
spiral. For baffles that are above the 3 o’ clock (horizontal) position as the trommel rotates, slurry instead
drains over the front of these and falls from the mid-height of the trommel back down into the slurry pool
inside the trommel. There is no obvious practical advantage for lifting and throwing the coarse rocks, balls
or scats and slurry inside a trommel and this could instead lead to unnecessary impact damage of the screen
surfaces.

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a)

b)

c)
Figure 12 - Interaction between the slurry flow inside the trommel with a single spiral set of baffles. The
flow is shown at three different times and coloured by axial speed.

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a)

b)

c)
Figure 13 - Flow of balls/scats/oversize through the trommel at three different times and viewed from
above. Particles are coloured by axial speed.

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a)

b)

c)
Figure 14 - Flow of slurry through the screen apertures at three different times. Particles are coloured by
axial speed. The view is from the side of the trommel with feed end on the right hand side.

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Figure 13 shows the passage of individual balls (coloured by axial speed) through the trommel
from start to end at three different times. The baffles do not travel fast enough in the axial direction to
propel the particles forward and therefore do not appear to directly influence the transport of coarse
particles to the end of the trommel for collection. Instead, the strong slurry flow appears to be dominantly
responsible for their axial transport through the trommel, including sometimes pushing them up and over
the baffles. A few balls are elevated up out of the main slurry flow by the baffles before falling from large
heights back onto the main slurry flow and the trommel screen surface.

The screening of slurry through the trommel panel apertures is shown in Figure 14. The view is
from the side so that the bottom of trommel is moving towards the viewer and then upwards. The rotation
of the trommel results in sideways flow inside the trommel as already discussed for Figure 12. There is
significant flow passing through this side of the trommel and falling below. The slurry flow through the
apertures is not constant and varies along the length of the trommel and with time. This flow through the
trommel screen is enhanced near the ends of the spiral baffles. This is due to the accelerating flow down
and along each spiral which generates a larger buildup of slurry immediately in front of the ends of the
baffles. This provides both more slurry to flow through the panels and higher fluid pressure to force the
slurry through. Since the orientation of the spirals changes with time, the screening performance and the
load on different parts of the trommel also vary with time. In addition, the sloshing flow from the feed end
of the mill also leads to time varying coverage of the sections of the trommel closer to the mill and
influences the screening performance for these panels.

An important aspect of this full-scale predictive DEM/SPH model is that one can now use it to
consider the effects of different operating conditions or design choices for screen panels and baffles and
how they influence performance. Effects such as overfilling the mill with excessive ball charge or the
build-up of too large a slurry pool can potentially lead to excess volumes of balls discharging into the
trommel, which can lead to enhanced damage of the trommel surface, or uneven loading of the trommel
structure under high slurry flow conditions.

CONCLUSIONS

Here we have introduced a predictive model of the fully coupled flow of grinding media and
viscous slurry (containing fine product) through an industrial scale overflow ball mill attached to a rotating
trommel screen. The behavior of the solids and fluid phases has been discussed in detail in each of the
sections of the mill/trommel assembly. The presence of fluid in the grinding chamber creates drag forces
on the media resulting in a charge with slightly lower shoulder and strongly lower toe positions, and the
generation of a substantial slurry pool above the toe.

The extended discharge head lifter bars do not appear to be particularly effective at preventing the
discharge of balls and oversize particles from the mill. The lifter bars act as strong guides for balls to flow
down the lifters and into the trunnion. A smaller fraction of balls are washed into the trunnion by the strong
overflow from the slurry pool. The ball retaining spiral appears to be a very effective design feature for
such mills and is very successful at collecting and redirecting balls back into the grinding chamber. The
high flow speed of the slurry out of the mill and over the retaining spiral is responsible for the transport of
coarse particulates into the trommel.

The flow through the trunnion and into the trommel is unsteady and there is substantial sideways
sloshing that may be useful for increasing the active area of the trommel used for separation by distributing
the fluid slurry over a larger screen area, as well as potentially helping reduce blinding and pegging of
apertures. For the trommel geometry considered here, the surface speed of the spiral baffles inside the
trommel is not fast enough to be able to strongly contribute to the axial transport of either slurry or balls.
The transport of oversize and foreign material along the length of the trommel is predominantly controlled
by the pressure from the strong slurry flow. However the baffles do influence the lateral spreading of the
slurry by forcing the fluid sideways and up the side of the trommel. This enhances the sloshing behavior
inside the trommel and helps distribute the fluid over 1/8 - 1/6 of the trommel circumference. Lifting and

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dropping of slurry and coarse particles by the spiral baffles does not appear useful for normal operation and
may contribute to trommel wear. Using a trommel spiral with a smaller pitch (so that there are more turns
along the length of the trommel) would then act more like a dam for the slurry. This will tend to increase
slurry retention time inside the trommel for classification, reduce the vertical lifting of the slurry/balls
which will reduce the surface area available for screening around the trommel circumference, and reduce
the rate at which the balls/scats are conveyed to the end of the trommel for collection. The screening
performance of the trommel varies along its length and with time due to the nature of the unsteady slurry
flow from the mill and the sloshing flow it generates inside the trommel and the interactions with the
rotating spiral baffles. This DEM/SPH model of particulate/slurry flow through a mill/trommel assembly
can now be used for diagnosing problems and improving performance of the mill discharge, screen
performance, damage to mill and trommel surfaces, and for assessing uneven dynamic loading of different
parts of the trommel structure that can lead to catastrophic failure.

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