A Review of Ball mill grinding process modeling using Discrete Element Method

Abstract

In the two past decades, the discrete element method (DEM) has been used to model the grinding mill and grinding media motion in mineral processing industries. There have been many different discrete element method models that provided good prediction of granular material behavior mainly the trajectory of particles, contact force, kinetic energy, and power draw of ball mill. This paper is intended to review the ball milling parameters that affect the grinding performance of a ball mill mainly the power consumption and the throughput quality. Particularly, the discrete element method (DEM) and its use to optimize critical parameters, limitations and achievement and identifying areas that still need further research. Keywords—Ball mill, comminution, discrete element method, tumbling mill