Evaluation of grinding media wear-rate by a combined grinding method

•Media wear rates are not repeatable neither only by self-grinding in water nor only by grinding with mineral slurry.•New proposed wear-test method combines advantages of the above two commonly used methods.•Repeatable results on wear rates can be obtained by the combined grinding method.

It is well-known that lab tests on wear-rate of grinding media cannot precisely represent its industrial performance due to complex grinding conditions. Nevertheless the lab data provides reference to the industrial data. Therefore, a reproducible test method on wear-rate in lab is necessary.By providing detailed data, this paper challenges the traditional wear-rate testing methods. Two commonly used methods on wear-rate test, self-wear in water and grinding with mineral slurry, are respectively employed. However, obvious fluctuation of wear-rate/time curves indicates neither of the two normal methods is reliable.This paper introduces a wear-rate testing method on lab scale which combines self-wear in water and grinding with mineral slurry. By this method, some repeatable wear-rate/time curves are displayed after a few hours. The mechanism will be discussed in detail in this paper.