RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Tensile strength
An example of the two repeat stress-strain curves measured using the uniaxial compression test is shown in
Figure 4, demonstrating the reproducibility of the testing method. The curves were fitted using the empirical
exponential equation shown below:

χ = K 2 [1 − exp(− K1σ t )] （2）

where χ is the strain value measured as a percentage of the plunger’s penetration into the cylindrical tablet
and σt is the vertical stress applied. K1 and K2 are parameters determined by the physical properties of the
particles and the interactions of those particles during the compression process.
Similar to the published results for green sinter bed strength by Ellis et al. (2007), the second parameter K2
was much more variable than K1. A larger value of K2 indicates a weaker granule adhering layer. Figure 5
compares the fitted K2 values for the four single ore blends under different granulation moisture conditions.
No matter what the single ore blend is, the K2 value is quite small when the moisture is low and increases
remarkably with increasing moisture content, demonstrating that a weaker more deformable adhering layer is
obtained at high moisture levels. At low mix moisture content, the size of particles in the adhering layer is
small and more uniform, and a small amount of water is sufficient to form liquid bridges between the particles
in the pendular state. As the moisture content increases, more larger particles are incorporated in the
adhering layer and the liquid bridges change from the pendular state to the capillary state, where all pores
between particles are filled with water, resulting in a much weaker bonding force between the particles of the
adhering layer (Pierrat and Caram 1997). Therefore, the adhering layer becomes more compliant when the
moisture content is high.
For the four single ore blends tested, the K2 values of Ore blend Y are much smaller than for the other three
ore blends at a given moisture content; the adhering layer of ore blend Y seems to be more rigid than for the
other three ore blends. Iron ore Y is a goethitic ore, which has a lower density and is much more porous than
the other three iron ores. The reason why the adhering layer of ore blend Y is more rigid at a particular
moisture content is thought to be that a larger fraction of the water in the adhering layer may be absorbed by
the intra-particle pores leaving less water available at the surface of particles. The liquid bridges may
therefore remain in the pendular state or funicular state rather than transitioning to the capillary state when
moisture is high for ore blend Y.

Shear strength
Figure 6 shows typical results for the direct shear test. The shear force increases gradually for a fixed level of
mass load. When the shear force reaches a maximum value, unstable shearing occurs between the upper
ring and fixed bottom ring. The maximum shear force is derived from the curves for different values of mass
load to calculate the friction and adhesion parameters for the samples according to the widely accepted
Mohr-Coulomb yield criterion as follows:

=τ σ s tan φ + C （3）

where τ and σs are the shear stress and the normal stress on the failure plane respectively, while φ and
C are the internal friction angle and cohesion constant of the sample respectively.
Figure 7 shows the shear stress versus different vertical stresses for ore blend Y. Under a constant vertical
stress level, the measured shear stress generally increases with increasing particle size and moisture
content. The calculated internal friction angle and cohesion constant are shown in Figure 8 and Figure 9
respectively. The friction angle ranges from 31° to 37° and the adhesion strength parameter is around 1 kPa.
Some previous work on the direct shear test for glass beads or soil found that the friction angle increases
with the particle size and moisture content (Mitarai and Nori 2006; Richefu et al. 2006; Bagherzadeh and
Mirghasemi 2009; Yamaguchi et al. 2013; Wang et al. 2016). However, the results in the present study show
significant variations without a clear trend. The reason for this may be the intrinsic characteristics of the
samples and set up of the shear cell (Bagherzadeh and Mirghasemi 2009; Wang et al. 2016).