Ceramic ball wear prediction in tumbling mills as a grinding media selection tool

•Wear kinetics of ceramic ball on tumbling milling were studied.•The presence of worn balls inside the mill charge has no effect.•A zero order kinetic was found so consumption by wear is constant.•Total consumption is only influenced by wear, with little influence of balls purge.

This article presents the results of applying a media selection methodology based on a population balance model to a ceramic ball mill; the experimental data were obtained through the marked ball test in a white-cement grinding pilot plant. Three types of balls from different suppliers (I, II and III) were used in order to study the wear occurring in each type of ball. Tests were carried out for 576 h and the law of wear for all three types of balls was found to be zero order. These results were introduced into the model to obtain the ball charge of the mill at steady state and the alumina consumption by wear.

Graphical abstractPrediction of ball addition for each ball type; it can be concluded that the mill must be recharged with 4 balls per hour in the case of ball types I and II, and 6 balls per hour for ball type IIIFigure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide