XXXI International Mineral Processing Congress 2024 Proceedings/Washington, DC/Sep 29–Oct 3 3735
dynamics once stability is achieved, looking for feed end
and discharge end. Slurry (ie SPH particles) is coloured
by lighter blue colour, steel balls are coloured by grey and
rocks are coloured by brown.
Under the current operating condition simulated
where ball load is quite high, it’s seen in Figure 5a higher
levels of steel balls in the charge along with rocks. There is
also fair amount of over though observed, with no evidence
of slurry pooling (Figure 5b). These observations through
simulations are typically evident on site operation under
these operating conditions. The effect of head lifter on the
slurry, rock and ball charge is captured reasonably well,
providing an important insight into the design of the head
lifters.
Figure 6 shows flow through grates and pulp chambers.
It clearly shows (Figure 6a) how slurry flows through the
grates into the pulp chambers in position of different pulp
chambers in their different location of rotations. When
pulp chamber reaches around 12 o’clock position slurry
start discharging into the centre cone and then into the
outlet. Once a pulp chamber move past 9 o’clock position
slurry that didn’t have the opportunity to leave start flow-
ing back into the pulp chamber taking up space as seen in 6
o’clock position. This was observed in previous simulations
by Weerasekara (2019).
Figure 4. Flow inside the SAG mill (a) mill feed end, (b) discharge end
Figure 5. Flow in the SAG mill viewed in the axial direction looking towards the discharge grate (a) coarse resolved particles
(DEM), (b) slurry colored in light blue (SPH)
dynamics once stability is achieved, looking for feed end
and discharge end. Slurry (ie SPH particles) is coloured
by lighter blue colour, steel balls are coloured by grey and
rocks are coloured by brown.
Under the current operating condition simulated
where ball load is quite high, it’s seen in Figure 5a higher
levels of steel balls in the charge along with rocks. There is
also fair amount of over though observed, with no evidence
of slurry pooling (Figure 5b). These observations through
simulations are typically evident on site operation under
these operating conditions. The effect of head lifter on the
slurry, rock and ball charge is captured reasonably well,
providing an important insight into the design of the head
lifters.
Figure 6 shows flow through grates and pulp chambers.
It clearly shows (Figure 6a) how slurry flows through the
grates into the pulp chambers in position of different pulp
chambers in their different location of rotations. When
pulp chamber reaches around 12 o’clock position slurry
start discharging into the centre cone and then into the
outlet. Once a pulp chamber move past 9 o’clock position
slurry that didn’t have the opportunity to leave start flow-
ing back into the pulp chamber taking up space as seen in 6
o’clock position. This was observed in previous simulations
by Weerasekara (2019).
Figure 4. Flow inside the SAG mill (a) mill feed end, (b) discharge end
Figure 5. Flow in the SAG mill viewed in the axial direction looking towards the discharge grate (a) coarse resolved particles
(DEM), (b) slurry colored in light blue (SPH)