A study on the draw laws of caved ore and rock using the discrete element method

Isolated physical draw experiments are conducted to investigate the shape of the isolated extraction zone (IEZ) and its main influencing factors. After validating the reliability of using Particle Flow Code (PFC) for draw simulation, various numerical models are constructed to investigate the draw laws of caved ore and rock under multiple drawpoint conditions. The results show that particle size, drawpoint size and column height have negligible effects on the IEZ's shape, which is mainly controlled by mass drawn, and that the ore loss ratio decreases with increasing drawpoint size and caved ore layer height and increases with increasing drawpoint spacing.