Continuous grinding in a small wet ball mill Part I. A study of the influence of ball diameter

Abstract

The influence of changes in ball diameter on the grinding behaviour of trace quantities of quartz within an environment of calcite in a small continuous wet ball mill has been studied. Rates of breakage for the initial tracer size and corresponding distribution of residence times have been determined experimentally, using balls with diameters ranging from 1 2 to 1 1 2 in. The breakage rates for sizes below the initial size and the breakage function have been determined by analogue computing techniques. The results show that changes in ball diameter influenced the mean residence time and caused large variations in the first order breakage rate constant at any size, but had little effect on the dimensionless distribution of residence time or the instantaneous breakage function. The major changes in product size distributions were due to systematic changes in the function relating rate of breakage to particle size.