International Journal of Mineral Processing, 39 ( 1993 } 41-60 41

Elsevier Science Publishers B.V., Amsterdam

Investigation of particle breakage mechanisms in

a batch ball mill using back-calculation

Y.M. Zhang and A. Kavetsky

Julius Kruttschnitt Mineral Research Centre, Universityof Queensland, Isles Road, Indooroopilly,
Qld. 4068, Australia
(Received 9 December 1991, accepted after revision 15 January 1993 )

ABSTRACT

Simultaneous estimation of breakage rate and distribution function parameters has been carried
out for two industrial ore samples and three types of cement clinker using dry batch ball mill data.
Unique parameter estimates were obtained through a back-calculation approach using non-linear least
squares fitting. The batch mill operating conditions were chosen to resemble industrial grinding situ-
ations. Investigation showed that breakage distribution and rate parameters did not conform to the
commonly used functional forms. The analysis demonstrates that the breakage distribution function
correlates to material property and particle size, and the breakage rate function also changes with
material type and with mill content size distribution. The mechanisms of particle breakage in a ball
mill inferred from the fitted breakage rate and distribution functions are also discussed in this paper.

INTRODUCTION

Over the past 20 years, efforts have been made by many researchers to in-
vestigate particle breakage behaviour in a ball mill using concepts of a break-
age rate function and a breakage distribution function to describe the grind-
ing mechanisms. One of the focuses of these investigations was to ascertain
whether the breakage rate function in a mill is mill environment dependent,
i.e. whether the breakage rate changes with grinding time. Many researchers
through their investigations indicated that the breakage rate of a particle re-
mains constant over relatively long grinding times in a dry batch mill pro-
vided the operating conditions are held unchanged (Gardner and Austin,
1962; Gupta and Kapur, 1974; Herbst and Fuerstenau, 1968, 1980; Klimpel
and Austin, 1970, 1977; Austin et al., 1982, 1984). The materials used in
these investigations were mainly homogeneous materials such as limestone,
clinkers, dolomite, quartz etc. with narrowly sized feeds ground using mono-
size grinding media. However, this conclusion that breakage rate is indepen-
dent of mill content size distribution has been questioned by other investiga-
tors (Herbst and Mika, 1973; Berube et al., 1979; Gupta et al., 1981; Herbst,
1983; Gupta, 1986; Weller et al., 1988; Fuerstenau and Abouzeid, 1991 ).

0301-7516/93/$06.00 © 1993 Elsevier Science Publishers B.V. All rights reserved.

42 "~.M. ZHANG+\NDA K,r~.kEfSKY

In industrial situations, the materials often have a complex mineralogical

composition and a wide feed size distribution. Moreover, a full scale indus-
trial mill is usually operated with multi-size grinding media. The objective of
the present study is to investigate particle breakage mechanisms in terms of
breakage rate and distribution functions under conditions close to industrial
situations i.e. using a number of materials with wide size distributions and
multi-size grinding media.

EXPERIMENTAL TECHNIQUE

Two types of industrial ore, Mt. Isa Cu ore and Elura P b / Z n ore, and three
types of clinker, type A, type ACSE and type C produced by the Berrima Works
of Blue Circle Cement Ltd. Australia, were involved in the experiments. For
each material selected, two size ranges of samples were prepared for further
batch grinding tests: - 3 . 3 5 m m and - 1.0 m m for ore materials; - 5 . 6 m m
and - 1.0 m m for clinkers (except clinker C). In order to eliminate the effect
of size distribution variation from test to test, the same size distributions were
artificially created for both Cu and P b / Z n samples in the - 3 . 3 5 m m size
range and clinker samples in the - 5.6 m m size range. The information about
these samples and grinding times is summarised in Table 1.
The laboratory scale ball mill used in the experiments was 200 m m in di-
ameter and 270 m m in length without lifters. It was coupled to a variable
speed control motor, which can be used to control the mill speed. The mill
was loaded with 10.9 kg of mixed steel balls, which corresponded to 27.4% of
the volume of the mill. The ball size and distribution are given in Table 2.
The mill was operated at a speed of 95 rpm, which was equivalent to 70% of
its critical speed.

TABLE 1

A summary o f sampte preparation (each s a m p l e = 1.5 kg)

Material type Number of Size range Fso Grinding time

samples (mm) (ram) (min)

Cu Ore 4 -3.35 2.4* 4, 8, 12, 16

Cu Ore 6 - 1.0 0.59 2.5, 5, 10, 20, 35, 45
P b / Z n Ore 4 -3.35 2.4* 4, 8, 12, 16
P b / Z n Ore 6 - 1.0 0.24 2.5, 5, 10, 20, 35, 45
Clinker A 4 -5.6 3.3** 3, 6, 9, 12
Clinker A 6 - 1.0 0.101 2.5, 5, 10, 20, 35, 45
Clinker ACSE 4 - 5.6 3.3** 3, 6, 9, 12
Clinker ACSE 6 - 1.0 0.094 2.5, 5, 10, 20, 35, 45
Clinker C 4 -5.6 3.3** 3, 6, 9, 12

* Having same size distribution.

** Having same size distribution.
PARTICLE BREAKAGE MECHANISMS IN A BATCH BALL MILL: BACK-CALCULATION 43

TABLE 2

Ball size and distribution of test mill

Ball size (mm) Number of balls Weight (kg)

36.75 36 7.201
30.00 7 0.768
25.50 46 2.927
Total 89 10.896

In each case, the mill was loaded with a 1.5 kg dry material sample. The
fraction of space between the balls at rest which was filled with powder, U,
varied from 0.67 to 0.85 (Cu ore: U=0.67; P b / Z n : U=0.72; Clinkers:
U=0.85 ). It has been found empirically that the range of U f r o m 0.6 to 1.1 is
a good powder and ball loading ratio to give efficient breakage in a ball mill
(Austin et al., 1984). These mill conditions were meticulously maintained
constant during all the experiments.
At the end of each grinding time, the ground product was weighed to check
for loss of material. The loss in each test was not in excess of 0.5% of the total
charge. A sample for sizing was, therefore, split from the ground product for
each test using an automatic splitting machine.
For the size range of - 3.5 m m ore materials, a ground product sample was
wet screened on a 400 mesh (38 micron) standard sieve first, and the over-
screen materials were dried and weighed, and then sized on a , / 2 screen series
for 20 minutes. However, for the size range of - 1.0 m m ore material, each
sample was wet screened at 350 mesh (45 microns), and the overscreen par-
ticles were then dried and weighed, and sized on a ~/2 screen series for 20
minutes. The particles under 350 mesh were carefully wet screened on micro-
sieves of 32 and 22 microns respectively.
For clinkers, the sample of product with size range - 5.6 m m was dry sized
on , / 2 screen series down to 400 mesh, while the sample with size range - 1.0
m m was dry screened on x/2 series down to 80 mesh (180 microns). The
- 180 # m particles were analysed on a CILAS microsize analyser.

ANALYSIS USING PREVIOUSLY ESTABLISHED METHODS

General approach
Mathematical analysis of the batch grinding data in the study was carried
out using the size-mass population balance model developed by Gardner and
Austin ( 1962 ):
dwi(t) i-1
dt - - r m ) w ' ( t ) + ~' bijrj,)wj(t) n>~i>lj>~l (1)
j=l i>1
4-[ YM. ZHAN¢; ,\NI)A. K~Vt!XSK~.

where w,(t) is the mass fraction of particle size i at time t, r,(t) is the specific
breakage rate of size i at time t, b~j is the breakage distribution function rep-
resenting the mass fraction sizej that appears at size i fraction after breakage.
The fourth-order Runge-Kutta method (Press et al., 1986) was employed
for the numerical solution of the population batch model. An advantage of
using this method is that it can be applied for the solution of the batch model
under both first-order and non-first-order hypotheses.
Given the size distribution data, the parameters of the chosen functional
forms for R and B can be determined by matching experimental Obs, (t) val-
ues with calculated Cali(t) values obtained by applying the Runge-Kutta
method to Eq. 1. This was accomplished by using a non-linear least-squares
technique (Marquardt, 1963 ), which minimizes the function:

Er= ~ ~ w,jtObs,(tj)-Cal~(t,)]2
/=1i=1
(2)

where Obs, (t;) is the observed cumulative percent passing the ith sieve size
at grinding time tj, Cal~ (tj) is the corresponding calculated quantity obtained
from Eq. 1 with a particular set of model parameter values and w~jis the weight
(or accuracy estimate ) for Obsi (tj). This method is termed a "back calcula-
tion" or "fitting" method.
For each material (Cu, P b / Z n and clinkers), since the operating condi-
tions such as mill speed, ball load, ball size and feed mass were unchanged
during the test exercises, the test results from the two starting feed size distri-
bution were fitted simultaneously by the forms of breakage rate and distri-
bution functions selected.

Simultaneous fitting of breakage rate and breakage distribution functions

The breakage distribution function and breakage rate function were fitted
simultaneously using the Austin et al. (1984) (i) and Klimpel and Austin
(1970) (ii) formulations for these functions under the first-order hypothesis
(i.e. the breakage rate is grinding time independent).

(i) Austin et al. (1984)formulation

Breakage rate function:

ri =A (xi)"Qi (3)
1
Qi = (4)
[1 + (xi/#)~]
Breakage distribution function:
PARTICLE BREAKAGE MECHANISMS IN A BATCH BALL MILL: BACK-CALCULATION 45

Bo=Ol(xj')
-a r
(x'-'~+FI-O I --
(xj -a ](xi_i
--
#
i>j (5)
\Xl/ k xj / L \Xl/ A\ xj /
where x~ is the upper size limit for size interval i; A, lt, a, q~, 5, y, and fl are
parameters (constants); x~ is the top particle size, xj and x,_ ~are particle size
o f j and i - 1 respectively.

(ii) Klimpel and Austin (19 70) formulation

Breakage rate function:
log(5) =el +c2(logx~) +c3 (logx~)Z+c4(logx~)3 + ... (6)
Breakage distribution function:

B;j=Ot(x~ ) (~)+ 1-tP, xj Xj_l (5)

\x~ / dk xj /
where ci ( i = l, 2, 3, 4), O1, 5, Y, andfl are parameters (constants), Xl is the
top particle size, xj and xi_ 1 are particle sizes ofj and i - 1 respectively.

Fitting breakage rate function only

In this analysis method, the breakage distribution function of material was

determined from a single particle breakage test. The test data were then fitted
by varying the breakage rate function only, using the JKMRC approach (iii)
(Whiten and Kavetsky, 1984; Zhang et al., 1988 ). In addition the breakage
rate function forms of Eq. (3) in (i) and Eq. (6) in (ii) were also fitted to
the data.

(iii) JKMRC approach (Whiten and Kavetsky, 1984; Zhang et al., 1988)
Breakage rate function:
ln(r~) =ai (7)
at N spline "knots" ( i = 1, 2,...N) positioned at sizes In (Xl), In (x2)...In (xN).
Values of ri at intermediate sizes are obtained by evaluating the cubic spline
at these sizes. Parameters in this approach are then the N values of ai, with
the x~ values chosen to cover the size distribution range of interest. Increase
in the number of spline knots N allows more detail to be determined in the
function, limited by the amount of information available in the data. This
approach to determine the r~ function has the advantages of simplicity and
flexibility (Whiten, 197 l, 1972 ).
Breakage distribution function:
B o was determined from single particle breakage tests conducted on the
4(~ 3 . M . Z H A N ( ; ~ . ~ N D A. K ~ , J I S K ~

material using a twin pendulum device developed by Narayanan and Whiten

(1988).

Fitting results and discussions

It was found that the solutions of breakage rate and distribution function
parameters in (i) and (ii) above were strongly depended on the initial esti-
mated values, and the standard deviations of some parameters (particularly
for the parameter 7) were usually very high. Thus, it was impossible to obtain
a unique solution of these functions. It is suggested that the reason for this is
that the forms of the functions used in (i) and (ii) were derived from the
"single size fraction" feed batch tests. They may therefore not be adequate
for situations with wide ranges of mill feed size distributions as used in this
study. Moreover, there are too many parameters which need to be deter-
mined, leading to trade-offs between parameter values and loss of a unique
minimum in the sum of squares in Eq. (2).
It was also found that at a given material-dependent breakage distribution
function, a unique solution of breakage rate function could easily be obtained
using the JKMRC approach (iii). This is believed to be due to the fact that
fewer parameters need to be fitted in the JKMRC approach than in ap-
proaches (i) and (ii) since it does not involve fitting the breakage distribu-
tion function, which is determined using a single particle breakage test.
Further investigation was carried out to evaluate the different approaches
to determining the breakage rate function only. This was conducted by using
ore-specific breakage distributions derived from single particle breakage tests
to fit the batch data using the Austin and Klimpel breakage rate functional
forms. The Data S.D. obtained from fitting using the three forms of breakage
rate function are summarised in Fig. 1.

B MT Isa Cu
[] Elura Pb/Zn
[] Clinkers

Klimpel Austin JK
Breakage Rate Function Form

Fig. 1. A summary of Data S.D. for fitting with different forms of breakage rate function.
PARTICLE BREAKAGE MECHANISMS IN A BATCH BALL MILL: BACK-CALCULATION 47

100 ....... , In o , a . ~ . - : - - - n .......

e~
~ 4n'~
• 8min
[] 12 m i n
E o 16 m i n
- - fitted
i I . . . . . I . , . . . . . . I • , . . . . .
10
.01 .I 1 10

Size (mm)

(a) -3.3s mm feed

100

÷ 20.0 m i n
• 35.0 r a i n
E
U ,I 45.0 m i n
- - fitted
. . . . . . I I
10 ! ! I I | 1 |

.01 .1

Size (rnm)
(b) - I . 0 mm feed

Fig. 2. C o m p a r i s o n b e t w e e n f i t t e d a n d o b s e r v e d d a t a for E l u r a P b / Z n ore.

The Data S.D. shown in Fig. 1 is the mean data standard deviation. It is a
statistical measure o f a model's "goodness o f fit" and is defined as:

.. W ) 2

Data S . D . = ~i (8)

where eo(w) is the weighted error (or residual), which is the the weighted
difference between the observed and calculated data:
eo(w)= wo(Obs~(tj) - Cab(tj) ) (9)
4~ "CM, ZHAN(; ~,NI) A. K \V[I'SK'~

where w,,= 1/a,j, and a,~ is the standard deviation of observed quantity Obs, (l,)
determined from repeat tests.
N is the total number of errors in all data sets; ndfis the number of degrees
of freedom, which is defined as:
n d f = nds. ne - n p ( 10 )
where nds is the number of data sets; ne is the number of errors in each data
set ( N = nds*ne); np is the number of fitted parameters.
For an adequate model, correctly weighted data (i.e. data whose measure-
ment errors aij are accurately known) should give a data S.D. of about 1.0.
From the figure, it is obvious that there was no significant difference between
the three approaches for determination of breakage rate function alone.
All of the fitting exercises using the approaches of (i), (ii) and (iii) de-
scribed above were under the first-order hypothesis of the population balance
model in which the breakage rate function is assumed to be time independent.
None of these approaches could adequately describe the breakage behaviour
of particles in a ball mill since the experimental data was not well fitted by
the models. This is shown by the large data standard deviation in Fig. l, and
by the comparison of observed versus calculated distributions in Figs. 2 (a)
and (b). For the feed of - 3 . 3 5 mm material, only the coarse particles are
well fitted by the model (see Fig. 2a), while only the fine particles are fitted
well for the feed of - 1.0 mm material (see Fig. 2b). The inadequate corre-
spondence between observed and calculated size distributions indicates that
some of the important mechanisms in the particle breakage processes are not
included in the model formulation. This led to development of a new modell-
ing approach to improve the simulation results.

ANALYSIS U S I N G A N E W M E T H O D

Recent research on a industrial iron ore sample conducted by Gao and

Forssberg (1990) has indicated that the breakage distribution function is size
dependent. Further investigation was thus carried out using a more general
approach which allows the possibility of both breakage rate and breakage dis-
tribution functions to vary with material type and mill content size distribu-
tions. The following forms were used for the breakage rate and distribution
functions.
Breakage rate function at each spline point i:
ln[r~( t) ] =ai + biXso( t) ( 11 )
where Xao (t) is the 80% passing size (ram) of mill content at grinding time t.
At each spline point, the parameters at and b~ specify the variation of break-
age rate function with mill content 80% passing size )(80 (t). Variation of 2(8o
PARTICLE BREAKAGEMECHANISMS IN A BATCH BALLMILL: BACK-CALCULATION 49

with grinding time then naturally leads to a breakage rate function varying
with time.
Three spline points were selected to represent the breakage rate function
for each of the materials tested (at 0.05 mm, 0.25 m m and 1.5 m m for ore
materials of Cu and Pb/Zn; at 0.075 mm, 0.5 mm and 2.5 m m for clinkers).
Breakage distribution function (Leung et al., 1987):

tioi=tmax[1-exp(-xi~K~5) 1 (12)

The quantity t,oi is the average percentage of material of initial size xi which
is broken finer than x~/10. It can be used as a breakage parameter of particle
size x~. For each value of tlo, values of b~j can be calculated for Eq. (2) as
defined by Narayanan and Whiten (1988). K is a material-specific parame-
ter. The coefficient of 1.5 in Eq. (12) is based on the work done by Leung et
al. (1987) and arises from consideration of the maximum probability of
breaking of different sized particles. The parameter tm~ specifies the maxi-
mum amount of breakage experienced by a particle in a single breakage event.
Single particle breakage tests using a pendulum device indicated that the
maximum value oftlo rarely if ever exceeds about 60% (Narayanan and Whi-
ten, 1988; Leung et al., 1987; Lira, 1990). So the maximum breakage param-
eter tmaxis selected as a constant of 60.
This method of representing the breakage distribution function leads to a
different specific breakage energy for each particle size broken in the mill.
Notionally, this energy corresponds to the average energy of balls with the
highest breakage rate for that particle size. Each value of t~o,allows a column
of the breakage matrix b~j (Eq. 1 ) to be calculated.
For each value of the model parameters ai, b~ and K, the mill content size,
the mill contents and hence Xso(t) were calculated at each time step (0.2
minute) using the Runge-Kutta method for the numerical solution of the batch
population model (Eq. 1 ). The model parameters were then fitted to the batch
test data using the Marquardt (1963) method to minimise the sum of squares
deviation between observed and calculated values as in Eq. ( 1 ).
It should be noted that in Eq. ( 11 ), when the constants b~= 0, the breakage
rates become mill content size independent and revert to the form of depen-
dence on particle size only given in Eq. (7). The formulation of the breakage
distribution function in Eq. (12) allows this function to be represented by
just one parameter (here K). This overcomes the problem with uniqueness
of solution encountered with the method used above.

RESULTS FROM THE NEW METHOD

Seven model parameters need to be determined by using the new approach

to simulate the batch test data. One is the ore specific parameter K in the size
50 Y.M. Z H A N G ~ N D A. KAY, E'[ SK"I

dependent breakage parameter t~0i function (Eq. 12 ), and the others are the
breakage rate parameters a, and bi ( i = 1,2 and 3 ) in Eq. ( 11 ).
Fitting was carried out under two assumptions. First, the batch test data
were fitted using Eqs. (9) and (10), but the parameters b, in Eq. (9) were set
to be zero. In this case, only 4 parameters were fitted: K, a~, a2 and a 3 and the
breakage rate function was time independent. Next, all of the 7 model param-

TABLE3

A summary of best-fit model parameters using the new approach (clinkers)

Parameters Type (A, ACSE and C)

Content independent Content dependent

fitted s.d. fitted s.d.

K (type A) 0.0189 + 0.0035 0.0262 + 0.0045

K (type ACSE) 0.0202 _+0.0039 0.0274 + 0.0051
K (type C) 0.0179 .+_0.0042 0.0289 _+0.0057
a~ - 4.3050 +-0.0639 - 4.3610 + 0.05 31
b~ 0.000 constant - 0.2910 + O. 1252
a2 - 0.8314 +-0.0259 - 0.8866 _+0.0247
b2 0.0000 constant 0.0000 constant
a3 --0.9750 +-0.0154 -- 1.5 630 +-0.0615
b3 0.0000 constant 0.2944 _+0.0314

Data S.D. 2.0769 1.7641

TABLE 4

A summary of best-fit model parameters using the new approach (ore materials)

Parameters Mt. lsa Cu ore Elura P b / Z n ore

Cont. independ.* Cont. depend.** Cont. independ.* Cont. depend.**

fitted s.d. fitted s.d. fitted s.d. fitted s.d

K 0.1959 +0.0501 0.0081 +0.0098 0.0172 +0.0057 0.0380 +_0.0103

a~ -5.6970 +-0.1820 -4.3111 +-0.2796 - 3 . 6 5 9 0 +-0.1150 -3.9490 +-0.0880
bl 0.000 constant 1.0090 +0.1430 0.000 constant -0.8591 +-0.0547
a2 -2.7860 _+0.0831 -2.6721 +-0.0574 - 1 . 1 5 2 0 +-0.0493 -0.8591 +-0.0547
bE 0.000 constant 0.5652 _+0.0441 0.000 constant - 1.2290 +-0.0790
a3 -1.3899 +-0.0411 -1.0720 +0.1190 -1.3691 +-0.0219 -1.2291 +-0.0790
b3 0.000 constant -0.1803 _+0.0723 0.000 constant -0.1013 +-0.0489

Data S.D. 2.6011 2.0268 2.3456 1.6792

* Breakage rate is mill content independent.

** Breakage rate is mill content dependent.
PARTICLEBREAKAGEMECHANISMSIN A BATCHBALLMILL:BACK-CALCULATION 51

2¸
;5
~6 [] Size Ind.
[] Size Dep.

Clinkers Elura Pb/Zn Mt Isa Cu

Fig. 3. Comparison of fitting results with mill content size dependent and independent breakage
rate function.

c5 [] IK Approach
2 [] New Approach

0
Clinkers Elura Pb/Zn Mt Isa Cu

Fig. 4. Comparison the fitting results between the earlier J K approach and the new approach.

eters (K, al, bl, a2, b2, a3 and b3 ) were fitted simultaneously to the batch data,
and the breakage rate function was mill contents (and hence time ) dependent.
A computer program was developed which allowed the same breakage rate
parameters to be fitted simultaneously for different materials, but the ore-
specific parameters K to be fitted individually, with a different value of K for
each material. Both ore materials and clinkers were fitted by this program.
It was found that for heterogeneous materials (Cu and P b / Z n ores) the
breakage behaviour varied with the material since they are poorly fitted by a
universal breakage rate function (Data S.D. is greater than 3.5 ). For homo-
geneous materials (clinkers), on the other hand, it was found that the break-
age behaviour appeared similar since they could be fitted by a universal
breakage rate function (see Table 3 ). It also can be seen that the three types
of clinkers have similar hardness due to their close values of the fitted ore-
specific parameter K. This agrees with the results from single particle break-
age tests. So an average K value could be used to represent hardness of the
three types of clinker. Thus, the ore material data were fitted separately. The
52 YM. ZHAN(} ~.NDA KA~,EISK'I

100

i
d - - fitted ]
| ,,,,,! , • • o,,,o!
10 I I " ] | | i i |lll

.01 .1 1 10
Size (ram)
a) -3.35 m m feed

100

K
~// • 10.0 rain
+ 20.0 min
• 35.0 min
E 0 45.0 min
-- fitted
. . . . ,, |
10
.01 .1

Size (ram)
b) -1.0 mm feed
Fig. 5. Comparison between fitted data using the new approach and measured data (Elura P b /
Zn ore).

best-fit results (including the model parameters K, al, b~, a2, b2, a3 and ba for
clinkers and ores are given in Tables 3 and 4 respectively.
The variation of Data S.D. obtained under the assumption of mill content
sizing dependent or independent breakage rates is plotted in Fig. 3. It is evi-
dent that for different materials a breakage rate varying with mill content
sizing gives consistently better fits compared to the sizing-independent rates.
The Data S.D. improved by 15% to 28% when the mill content size distribu-
tion was included in the breakage rate function. Furthermore, statistical anal-
PARTICLEBREAKAGEMECHANISMSIN A BATCHBALLMILL:BACK-CALCULATION 53

70.0

60.0

50.0

40.0

~. 30.0

.~ 20.0

1o.o

0.0
.01 .1 1 10
Size (mm)

Fig. 6. Breakage parameter ho versus particle size for Mt Isa Cu and Elura P b / Z n ores.

)'sis using the "extra sum of squares" technique (Draper and Smith, 1981 )
also showed that the coefficient bi was a significant term in assumed Eq. ( 11 ).
Further comparison was carded out to compare the difference between re-
sults obtained using the JK approach (iii) above and the new approach. Fig-
ure 4 gives a summary of this comparison.
It is obvious from Fig. 4 that the new approach gives significantly better
fitting results compared to the earlier JK approach, the Data S.D. improving
by 23.5% to 54.2%. This indicates that the mill contents particle size distri-
butions should be included in the variation of breakage rate and distribution
functions. The fitted results using the new approach are compared with ex-
periment data for the Elura Pb/Zn ore in Figs. 5a and 5b.
Comparison of Fig. 5 with Fig. 2 makes it obvious that the fitting results
are significantly improved by using the new approach. This again indicates
that the particle size and mill content size distribution should included in the
breakage rate and distribution functions.
A statistical analysis using the t-test was carded out and showed that, at
95% confidence level, the value of the best-fit material specific parameter K
for Mt Isa Cu is significantly higher than the value of K for Elura Pb/Zn ore.
This indicated that the Mt Isa Cu ore is harder than the Elura Pb/Zn ore,
which agrees with the Bond Work Index results (Cu: 24.71 kWh/t; Pb/Zn:
12.61 kWh/t).
The breakage parameter tlo versus particle size calculated by Eq. ( 12 ) for
Mt Isa Cu and Elura Pb/Zn ores is plotted in Fig. 6. From this figure, it is
clear that the softer Pb/Zn ore has a higher breakage parameter tlo than the
harder Cu ore.
)q Y.M. ZHAN(i AND a., K,\Vk ISK'I

BREAKAGE MECHANISMS IN A BALL MILL

From the above analysis, it can be seen that the model of breakage pro-
posed in this paper fitted the data better than other models examined. Since
the present model contains a flexible representation of breakage rate varia-
tion with particle size and mill contents, based on spline functions, it is not
tied to a particular functional form for the breakage rates. It is thus consid-
ered to give a relatively unbiased representation of the true underlying break-
age rates. The model is, however, subject to the fundamental limitation im-
posed by the amount of information available in measured size distribution
data. This limits the number of spline knots, and hence detail about underly-
ing breakage rate variations, which can be uniquely determined from the data.
The following discussion concerns inferences which may be drawn concern-
ing breakage mechanisms in a ball mill, based on results of the present analysis.
The variations of specific breakage rate with particle size for three mill con-
tent size distributions represented by X~0 values of 2.0, 1.0 and 0.5 mm are
given in Figs. 7a to 7c for the material tested. From these figures it is clear
that the variation of breakage rate function with particle size and mill con-
tents is very different for different materials. This confirms that the breakage
rate function is material property dependent.
From Figs. 7a to 7c, it can be seen that the variation of the breakage rate
function R with the mill content size for heterogeneous materials (ore mate-
rials ) is larger compared to the homogeneous material (clinkers).
When the mill content size Xs0 becomes smaller, the breakage rate of the
relatively softer Elura P b / Z n ore increases for all particle sizes (see Fig. 7a).
For the harder Mt Isa Cu ore, the breakage rate increases for coarse particles
and decreases for fine particles with decreasing )(8o (see Fig. 7b). For clink-
ers, the breakage rate decreases slightly for coarse particles and increases
slightly at fine particles (see Fig. 7c) when the mill contents size becomes
finer. The reasons for these behaviours can be explained as follows.
The breakage events occurring in a ball mill are generally described as a
mixture of fractures caused by impact and attrition (Austin et al., 1984; Kelly
and Spottiswood, 1990). Coarser particles are more likely to be broken by
impact in the mill's impact zone, whilst fine particles are generally considered
to be predominantly broken by attrition in the attrition zone (Austin et al.,
1990).
When the mill content size becomes finer, fewer coarse particles remain for
further breakage. The probability of impact by balls for the coarse particles
left is, therefore, increased. So the specific breakage rate for these coarse par-
ticles would be increased. This effect has been reported in recent research
(Fuersteunau and Abouzeid, 1991 ). This could be the reason for the cases of
breakage rate increasing at coarse particles for both Cu and P b / Z n ores when
the mill content size becomes finer.
 PARTICLE BREAKAGE MECHANISMS IN A BATCH BALL MILL: BACK-CALCULATION 55

$o
,!BOO0.o
,o
to
lo
.01
,o
I.d to o x80=2.0 m m
t~ .001
$o •
x80=-1.0 m m
o
4. x80=03 m m
.0001 . . . . . ,',1 . . . . . . . . I

.01 .1 1 10
Size ( m m )

a ) Elura Pb/Zn Ore

1'

ooooOO
o.+
;;; ''''°
o@°+
v++ +
.~ .ol, 4-
e~ o x80=2.0 m m
.N
"= .001 o x80= 1.0 m m
e~
c~ 4, x80=0.5 m m
.0001 . . . . . . . I . . . . . . . . !

.01 .1 1 10
Size ( m m )

b) Mt lea Cu Ore
1

E
.,=
,00e$8Ooo
e
.1 ~

.01 o
t~
;o o x80=-2.0 m m

•- .001 +
to @ x80=1.0 m m
g • o
e~ ÷ x80=0.5 m m
0

.0001 • " " " ' " 1

. . . . . . . . |

.01 .1 1 10
Size (ram)

c) Clinkers
Fig. 7. V a r i a t i o n o f b r e a k a g e r a t e w i t h m i l l c o n t e n t siz e f o r d i f f e r e n t m a t e r i a l s .
3(7 Y,M. ZHAN( i a.ND 4. K-~V[ I SK'~

0.5
1.18 m m

0.4
Mt Isa C u
Elura P b / Z n
•" ~ Clinkers
0.3

[
c¢)

02 " ! - ! - ! - | - ! - i - | - 1 - |

2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
G r i n d i n g T i m e (minutes)
a) size=1.18 mm
0.50
Particle size = 0.3 m m

0.40

0.30 Mt Isa C u
-4- Elura P b / Z n
0.20 Clinkers

t~

0.10
o

0.00 l • I " 1 • I ' I " I " I ' I ' I

2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Grinding time (minutes)
b) size=0.3 mm
0.06
Particle size = 0.075 m m
0.05

0.04
•-m- Mt Isa C u
0.03 Elura P b / Z n
Clinkers
0.02

0.01

0.00 • ! • I • I • I • I • I • I • I • I •

2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Grinding time (minutes)
c) size=-O.075 mm

Fig. 8. V a r i a t i o n o f b r e a k a g e rate w i t h g r i n d i n g t i m e for d i f f e r e n t m a t e r i a l s at t h r e e p a n i c l e

sizes.
PARTICLE BREAKAGE MECHANISMS IN A BATCH BALL MILL: BACK-CALCULATION 57

However, if the coarse particles left were harder ones, which was qualita-
tively observed during the clinker batch tests, some of the range of impact
energies available for breakage might not be sufficient to break these parti-
cles. The probability of impacts resulting in breakage would thus be de-
creased, even though the probability of impact for the particles increased. In
this case, the breakage rate of the coarse particles would be decreased. This is
postulated to be the case for clinkers.
On the other hand, when the mill content size becomes finer, more fine
particles would be found in the attrition zone. For the softer materials like
P b / Z n ore and clinkers, the comminution energy required for breakage by
attrition would be less than that required for harder material like Cu ore. It is
suggested that in the attrition zone, the comminution energy for breakage was
sufficient to break the softer materials of P b / Z n ore and clinkers, but insuf-
ficient to break the harder Cu ore. This could be the reason why the breakage
rates increased at fine particles for the P b / Z n ore and clinkers, but decreased
for the Cu ore when the mill content size became finer.
The variation of the breakage rate versus grinding time at particle sizes of
1.18 ram, 0.3 mm and 0.075 mm are plotted in Figs. 8a to 8c. From these
figures, it can be seen that the variation of the breakage rate with grinding
time for different materials is different. This is attributed to differences in the
material properties. The breakage rate for softer materials, such as clinkers
and P b / Z n ore, were higher compared to the harder Cu ore material at parti-
cle sizes of 1.18 m m and 0.3 mm (Figs. 8a and 8b). However, for the fine
particle size at 0.075 mm, the harder Cu ore material had a higher breakage
rate at earlier grinding time compared to the softer materials of P b / Z n ore
and clinkers (Fig. 8c). This behaviour could be caused by the liberation of
the minerals, which changed the property of the material at that size fraction.
Further investigation to examine liberation in the fine size fractions as a func-
tion of grinding time is needed to confirm this.

CONCLUSIONS

Analysis presented in this paper has showed that for the present batch data
attempts to simultaneously determine both breakage distribution and break-
age rate functions using Austin or Klimpel formulations were unsuccessful
due to the difficulty of obtaining a unique solution. These models use "single
size fraction" batch tests to independently determine the breakage distribu-
tion function. The present results suggest that such tests do not adequately
apply to the present batch test data conducted over a wide range of size dis-
tribution of mill contents. Without a fixed breakage distribution function there
are too many parameters needing to be determined for the information con-
tained in the batch data alone. These parameters are thus interacting during
3~ ~.M. ZHAN(J ,~ND-\ K-\VETSK'~

the fitting process, with the same variations being fitted by more than one
parameter.
The simpler existing JK appraoch allows independent determination of the
breakage distribution function from pendulum tests using a standard input
energy level of 41.788 kg cm (Narayanan and Whiten, 1988; Zhang et al.,
1988). This method was found to give a unique solution, as did Austin and
Klimpel and Austin approaches with fixed breakage distribution function.
The fitting results showed that there were no significant difference between
the three approaches. However, the present batch data obtained from grind-
ing Cu, Pb/Zn ores and cement clinkers could not be adequately fitted by any
of these approaches.
A new approach to simulate the batch test data in terms of the breakage
distribution and rate functions was therefore developed. This approach was
based on two important generalizations: (i) the breakage distribution func-
tion was dependent on material property and particle size; (ii) the breakage
rate function was also dependent on material property and particle size, and
in addition varied with mill content size distribution.
The results from application of the new approach for the batch test data
indicated that the breakage behaviour for homogeneous material differed from
heterogeneous materials. All three types of clinker tested appeared to have
similar breakage behaviour, as universal breakage rate and distribution func-
tions could be used to describe their breakage events. However, for heteroge-
neous materials of Cu and P b / Z n ores, the breakage behaviour varied with
the material due to different breakage distribution and breakage rate functions.
The investigation has demonstrated that the breakage distribution function
correlates to material property and particle size, and the breakage rate func-
tion is also dependent on material and mill content size distribution. The fit-
ting results using the new approach were significantly better compared to the
normalized breakage distribution function and mill content size independent
breakage rate function. The overall mean residue (Data S.D. ) was improved
by up to 54% using the new approach. Both breakage rate and distribution
functions could be determined simultaneously, and the hardness of the ma-
terials could also be distinguished by using the new approach developed.
The breakage mechanisms of particles in a ball mill were also discussed in
terms of breakage rate and distribution functions based on the fitted results.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The authors express their appreciation to Dr. T. Napier-Munn and Mr. S.

Morrell for their advice, helpful suggestions and discussions.
PARTICLE BREAKAGE MECHANISMS IN A BATCH BALL MILL: BACK-CALCULATION 59

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