| Huge amounts of energy expended on comminution devices, such as ball mill, besides being a highly inefficient process has been the motive of much research aiming at improving the efficiency of comminution processes. Comminution theories are mainly based on size distribution of the ore and consequently fall short in addressing other imperative phenomena, such as media wear and more importantly energy utilization efficiency. A methodology based on an energy viewpoint is proposed for comminution studies which can serve as a powerful tool in design and performance optimization of comminution devices. Through this approach, the relation between operating parameters and optimization objectives which are the reduction of media wear and increase in ore breakage and energy efficiency could be explored. On the other hand, since field testing of comminution models is expensive, standard laboratory test methods which could reliably simulate the comminution conditions similar to the actual application environment are needed. While there are standard test methods for wear or breakage characterization of the materials individually, there is a need for standard test methods which enable us to conduct combined study of wear and breakage to create an environment similar to the actual applications. The Steel Wheel Abrasion Test is one of the candidates which provide us with such environment to study wear, breakage and their interrelation in one apparatus because of its high-stress nature of abrasion. Furthermore, more precise tools of describing the quantity and quality of the breakage and abrasive wear are introduced. Experimental results extracted from steel wheel abrasion test are analyzed using proposed methodologies and energy-based approach. |
