Impact response of polymer‐coated grinding spheres

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effect that polymer coat has on the impact behavior of grinding sphere and to find possible subsection of parameter space in which grinding sphere wear could be reduced.Design/methodology/approachNumerical analysis is based on axisymmetric finite elements that were developed using symbolic tool AceGen. Comparing stress response of elastic and visco‐elastic material revealed that for high strain rates observed in impacts both behave the same and that is why elastic elements were used in simulations.FindingsImpact velocity, coat thickness and polymer material properties were varied in a parametric case study of polymer‐coated sphere impact. Decrease of the pressure on the surface of grinding sphere indicates that polymer layer can be effective in reducing grinding media wear, but in order to maintain adequate impact pressure to do the grinding the impact velocity has to be increased. Both upper and lower limit for impact velocity were determined for some arbitrary pressure threshold values. This shows that combining measured threshold values of specific material with results from presented numerical tool could provide valuable guides for finding optimum stirred media milling operation parameters.Originality/valueIn this work, the authors develop numerical tools with the aim of supporting experimental development of polymer coat capable of reducing grinding media wear.