Analysis of vertical roller mill performance with changes in material properties and operating conditions using DEM. (31st May 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Liu, Chang; Chen, Zuobing; Zhang, Weili; Mao, Ya; Xu, Pengyun; Xie, Qiang
• Is Part Of: Minerals engineering. Volume 182(2022)
• Publication Date: 2022-05-31
• Subjects: DEM -- Material properties -- Operating conditions -- Crushing behavior -- Vertical roller mill; Mines and mineral resources -- Periodicals; Ressources minérales -- Périodiques; Mines and mineral resources; Periodicals; Electronic journals; 622
• DOI: 10.1016/j.mineng.2022.107573
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0892-6875

Abstract

Highlights: The crushing process in the vertical roller mill (VRM) has been systematically investigated via DEM. Significant effects of material properties and operating conditions on the VRM performance have been discovered. The particle shape parameters have been found to be important in the crushing mechanisms. The average power draw is closely related to the crushing rate. Abstract: The vertical roller mill (VRM) is commonly used for secondary and tertiary crushing processes in numerous industries. In this study, the discrete element method (DEM) was employed to explore the crushing in an overflow VRM without air involved via the bonded-particle model (BPM). Particle crushing experiments on a laboratory-scale VRM were compared with simulated results and good agreement was obtained indicating the accuracy of the numerical model. Then, effects of the material properties and the operating conditions on the overflow VRM performance were systematically investigated. It was found that trends in the particle size distribution of product and changes in throughput and crushing rate could be identified with alterations in material properties and the operating conditions. These two aspects are of great significance to the equipment performance. By increasing the rotation, the residence time decreases, which helps increase the throughput. However, this will lead to a higher proportion of coarse level particles in the finished products. The crushing behavior of materials is related to their physical size as well as sphericity. The research on the crushing characteristics of VRM is effective in optimizing the process and operation parameters of the crushing equipment.