Experimental and Numerical Study of Grinding Media Flow in a Ball Mill

An experimental and numerical study on the grinding media dynamics inside a baffled ball mill under different solid-flow regimes, namely, cascading, cataracting, and centrifuging, is described. The Eulerian approach was used for all simulations and the boundary condition at the drum wall was investigated by means of the specularity coefficient parameter. This effort is an important approach in representing the particle-wall interaction in a ball mill. The restitution coefficient of the balls was experimentally measured using a video camera, and its influence was evaluated by comparing the numerical and experimental outcome of flow patterns. The simulations results proved that the specularity and restitution coefficients effects at the drum wall were more evident at high rotational speeds.