A Comparative Study on a Vertical Stirred Mill Agitator Design for Fine Grinding

Abstract

Comminution is an energy intensive process. A small change in efficiency can lead to substantial benefits in an overall economy of the process plant. This study focused on the comparison of vertical stirred mill agitator designs. A double helical screw agitator was designed for this purpose. A series of stirred mill experiments were performed with two types of agitator designs a standard pin type and CSIRO’s designed double helical screw stirrers. The effects of operating parameters such as grinding time, stirrer speed, and pulp density on grinding performance was investigated using a magnetite concentrate. Grinding performance was analyzed by considering the product fineness and the energy consumption. The test results show that the grinding time and stirrer speed played a significant role; however, the pulp density had little impact on grinding performance in both cases of agitator designs. The 80% passing target product size of 38 μm was obtained with double helical screw agitator in 20 min of grinding with an expend of 10.53 kWh/t specific energy, whereas, the target product size of 38 μm was achieved with the pin type stirrer at the rate of 21.73 kWh/t. It is evident that grinding in a vertical stirred mill with a double helical screw is more efficient than that using a pin type stirrer in terms of the product size distribution and the specific energy consumption. It is concluded that the double helical screw design provides better energy efficiency compared to the pin type stirrer design. The models were developed for the responses P80 and Ecs. Both models show high regression coefficients thus ensuring a satisfactory of models with experimental data. The model equations developed were then optimized using a quadratic programming to minimize the P80 size at minimum specific energy.