Powder Technology 143 144 (2004) 196 203

www.elsevier.com/locate/powtec

Experimental investigation on a grinding rate constant of solid

materials by a ball milleffect of ball diameter and feed size
N. Kotake, K. Daibo, T. Yamamoto, Y. Kanda *
Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Yamagata University, 4-3-16 Jonan, Yonezawa-shi, Yamagata 992-8510, Japan
Available online 2 July 2004

Abstract
In the present work, a grinding rate constant, i.e., a selection function was measured for five solid materials using a tumbling ball mill, and
effects of a grinding ball diameter and a feed particle size on the grinding rate constant of the materials were investigated. The tendency in the
variation of the grinding rate constant with the feed size was similar in the all materials used, but was independent of the ball diameter. These
relations for all materials can be expressed by modifying Snows equation. In addition, we examined the descriptions of the grinding rate
constant using two kinds of selection functions derived theoretically by Tanaka.
D 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Grinding rate constant; Selection function; Ball mill; Ball diameter; Feed size

1. Introduction
Comminution is an important operation and is widely
utilized in many industries in which raw materials are converted into intermediate or finer sized products. For a long
time, grinding processes, especially on tumbling ball mills,
have been subjected to statistical and kinetic analysis [1,2].
According to the comminution kinetics, a batch grinding
process can be expressed by using two basic functions, i.e.,
the selection function which indicates the fracture probability of a particle, and the breakage function which shows the
size distribution of fractured particles.
Eq. (1) is a typical expression of the rate in a batch
grinding process [3,4],
i1
X
dmi t
Si mi t
bi;j Sj mj t;
dt
j1

where mi(t) is the mass fraction of the particles of component i, Si the selection function, bi,j the ratio at which
particles of the ground component j become particles of
component i, and t the grinding time.

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +81-238-26-3169; fax: +81-238-263414.

E-mail address: kanda@yz.yamagata-u.ac.jp (Y. Kanda).
0032-5910/$ - see front matter D 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.powtec.2004.04.014

Additionally, it is often the case for i = 1 that the

decreasing rate of the largest particles is described by the
following first-order equation,
dm1 t
S1 m1 t:
dt

The selection function S1 has been investigated by

many researchers using a wide variety of grinding mills
under different conditions [5 10], and this item is of
great interest when considering the grinding efficiency,
the design of the circuit of the grinding and classification
processes [11].
Eq. (2) shows the decreasing rate of feed material, and
we expressed m1(t) as the mass fraction of feed size R, and
S1 as the grinding rate constant K1 in Eq. (3),


dR
K1 R:
dt

In the previous papers [12,13], the variation in the

grinding rate constant, i.e., the selection function with the
particle size was expressed by modifying Snows equation
[14], and the rate constant was empirically derived as
functions of the grinding ball diameter and the feed particle
size. This paper has dealt with the experimental study on
several solid materials and investigated the influences of

N. Kotake et al. / Powder Technology 143 144 (2004) 196203

Table 1
Physical properties of materials used
Material

Silica glass
Quartz
Limestone
Gypsum
Talc

197

describe the dependency of the grinding rate constant on the

feed size.

Density
(kgm 3)

Mohs
hardness
()

Vickers
hardness
(kgf mm 2)

Youngs
modulus
(GPa)

Poissons
ratio ( )

2,150
2,620
2,700
2,300
2,780

6.5
6.5
4
2
1

465
245
115
36 70
12

73.5
87.1
68.0
37.8
15

0.16
0.16
0.32
0.32
0.33

ball diameters, feed sizes and the properties of materials on

the rate constant, and then described the equations in the
selection function based on the Tanakas equation [15 17].
1.1. Modification of Snows equation

1.2. Geometrical mean of Tanakas equations

Tanaka has derived two kinds of theoretical formulas for
the selection function in ball media mills. One is the formula
based on the consideration of the effective breakage at the
normal grinding stage which is performed by the action of
the impact force of a ball to particle bed [15,16], and the
other is the expression of the comminution process at fine
grinding stage which is mainly affected by the frequency of
collisions between balls and particles [17,18].
These can be described by Eqs. (7) and (8), respectively,
3=2

3=2

S1;a ~dB xnf cdB xf

Austin [6] and Zhao et al. [9] used the following equation
to express the change in K1( = S1) with the feed size but the
equation could not explain on the experimental values in the
coarse particle size range,


lnxf =l
a
a
S1 axf Qz axf Q
;
4
lnr
where a and a are constants, Q(z) is the Gaussian distribution function, xf and z are the feed size and a dimensionless
parameter, respectively. l is the feed size when Q(z) = 0.5,
and lnr denotes the standard deviation of Q(z).
Snow [14] quoted the ball milling data reported by
Kelsall et al. [5] and showed that the relationship between
the selection function and the feed size could be empirically
expressed by Eq. (5),
 a 

S1
xf
xf

exp 
;
5
Sm
xm
xm
where xm is the feed size at which S1 is the maximum value,
which is defined as Sm. In the previous studies [12,13], it
was reported that Eq. (5) proposed by Snow could not
sufficiently explained the dependency of the dimensionless
grinding rate constant on the feed size. Thus, we revised the
Snow s equation as follow;
 a 

K1
xf
xf  xm

exp c
;
6
Km
xm
xm

S1;b ~

, nc1 16;





xf
dm
xf
xf
exp 
~ exp cV
dB
dB
dB
dB

, dm ~xf 17;
where cVis a constant.
It is necessary to consider simultaneously the influences of the impact force of ball media to particles and the
contact between particles and impacting balls on the
breakage rate in a ball mill. From the points of view
mentioned above, the geometrical mean of these relations
can be shown as Eq. (9),
s


xf
xf
3=2
d B xf 
exp cV
dB
dB


cV xf
dB0:25 xf exp 
;
2 dB

p
K1 ~ S1;a S1;b ~

uK1

C1 VdB0:25 xf exp



xf
C2 V
;
dB

where C1V and C2V( = cV/2) are constants, respectively.

Eq. (9) can be also utilized to investigate the change of
the grinding rate constant under different ball diameters and
feed sizes.

2. Experiment
where c is a constant.
This equation enables us to be consistent with the
experimental results, so that we have proposed Eq. (6) to

The materials used in this experiment were five kinds:

silica glass, quartz, limestone, gypsum and talc. Physical

Table 2
Experimental conditions in silica glass
Ball diameter, dB (mm)
Feed size, xf (mm)
Number of feed size
xf/dB ( )

3
1.68 1.41 to
0.105 0.088
12
0.515 0.032

5
2.38 2.0 to
0.149 0.105
11
0.438 0.023

10
3.36 2.83 to
0.149 0.125
11
0.31 0.0137

20
4.0 3.36 to
0.149 0.125
12
0.184 0.0069

30
8.0 6.7 to
0.105 0.088
19
0.245 0.032

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N. Kotake et al. / Powder Technology 143 144 (2004) 196203

Table 3
Experimental conditions in quartz
Ball diameter, dB (mm)
Feed size, xf (mm)
Number of feed size
xf/dB ( )

3
1.18 1.0 to
0.075 0.038
12
0.36 0.019

5
2.0 1.7 to
0.075 0.038
15
0.37 0.011

10
1.7 1.4 to
0.075 0.038
14
0.16 0.0057

20
4.0 3.35 to
0.075 0.038
19
0.18 0.0028

30
4.0 3.35 to
0.075 0.038
19
0.12 0.0019

Table 4
Experimental conditions in limestone
Ball diameter, dB (mm)
Feed size, xf (mm)
Number of feed size
xf/dB ( )

3
1.0 0.85 to
0.075 0.038
11
0.31 0.019

5
2.0 1.7 to
0.75 0.038
12
0.37 0.011

and mechanical properties of the materials are listed in Table

1. For preparation of the feed materials, a jaw crusher was
used to crush the large fragments of silica glass, massive
quartz, limestone, gypsum and talc. We classified the
materials of 103/20 or 103/10 size interval ratio with a
rotational and tapping shaker.
The grinding machine is a laboratory scale mill made
of alumina with an inside diameter of 144 mm and an
inner volume of 2,100 cm3. The grinding media are
alumina balls of 3,600 kg/m3 in density and five kinds
of ball diameters are used: 3, 5, 10, 20 and 30 mm. The
feed size of the materials is varied in the order of 10 3
to 10 1 as a ratio of the ball diameter. The ball
diameters and the feed sizes of the materials are also
shown in Tables 2 6. The feed masses of the materials
and ball are to be 200 g and 2 kg, respectively [19]. The
rotational speed of the mill is set at 108 rpm which is
approximately 90% of the critical one.
Batch grinding tests were carried out for 1, 3 and 5
min with silica glass, quartz and limestone, for 1, 2 and
4 min with gypsum and talc. The ground product of the
materials was sieved with the shaker, and then the mass
of unground feed particles was measured and put them

10
1.4 1.18 to
0.075 0.038
13
0.13 0.0057

20
3.36 2.8 to
0.075 0.038
17
0.154 0.0028

30
3.36 2.8 to
0.075 0.038
18
0.103 0.0019

back into the mill, to continue the grinding again up to

the prescribed time.

3. Results and discussion

3.1. Grinding rate constant in the first order equation
Figs. 1 and 2 show the relationship between the mass
fraction of the feed size and the grinding time for quartz and
talc using balls with a diameter of 20 mm, respectively. Fig.
3 shows the relationship between the mass fraction of the
feed size and the grinding time for quartz using balls with a
diameter of 10 mm. These figures indicate that the determination of the grinding rate constant K1 in the first order
Eq. (3) would be possible irrespective of the materials, ball
diameters and feed sizes.
3.2. Relationship between grinding rate constant and feed
size
Fig. 4 shows the relationship between the grinding
rate constant K1 and the feed size xf for quartz, depend-

Table 5
Experimental conditions in gypsum
Ball diameter, dB (mm)
Feed size, xf (mm)
Number of feed size
xf/dB ( )

3
0.85 0.71 to
0.075 0.038
10
0.26 0.019

5
1.7 1.4 to
0.075 0.038
14
0.31 0.011

10
1.7 1.4 to
0.075 0.038
13
0.155 0.0057

20
3.36 2.8 to
0.075 0.038
17
0.154 0.019

30
3.36 2.8 to
0.075 0.038
17
0.103 0.0019

3
0.6 0.5 to
0.075 0.038
8
0.18 0.019

5
0.71 0.6 to
0.075 0.038
9
0.13 0.011

10
1.18 1.0 to
0.075 0.038
12
0.11 0.0057

20
1.7 1.4 to
0.075 0.038
14
0.078 0.0028

30
1.7 1.4 to
0.075 0.038
14
0.052 0.0019

Table 6
Experimental conditions in talc
Ball diameter, dB (mm)
Feed size, xf (mm)
Number of feed size
xf/dB ( )

N. Kotake et al. / Powder Technology 143 144 (2004) 196203

199

Fig. 1. Relationship between mass fraction of feed size and grinding time
(dB = 20 mm, Quartz).

Fig. 3. Relationship between mass fraction of feed size and grinding time
(dB = 10 mm, Quartz).

ing on the ball diameter. The feed size is the arithmetic

mean of openings of sieves used to prepare the feed
particles. The rate constant K1 increases with increasing
feed size up to a certain size and then decreases with
increasing feed size. The tendency in the variation is
independent of the ball diameter and there is an optimum feed size at which K1 takes a maximum value. The
optimum feed size increases with increasing the ball
diameter.
As shown in Fig. 4, the variation in the K1 values
with the feed size takes a similar pattern irrespective of

the ball diameter for quartz. Fig. 5 shows the results

obtained when K1 and xf are normalized by Km and xm.
Km is the maximum value of K1 and xm is the optimum
feed size at which the grinding rate constant K 1
becomes maximum value. As one can see from Fig.
4, it is difficult to specify xm at which K1 has a
maximum value. Then, as shown by the solid marks
in this figure, we chose feed size averages that are
within 10% of the maximum values of K1, and used
them as the average values of Km. From Fig. 5, it is
evident that the relationship between the dimensionless
grinding rate constant K1/Km and the dimensionless feed
size xf/xm lies fairly well along a convex curve, irre-

Fig. 2. Relationship between mass fraction of feed size and grinding time
(dB = 20 mm, Talc).

Fig. 4. Variation of grinding rate constant with feed size (Quartz).

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N. Kotake et al. / Powder Technology 143 144 (2004) 196203

Fig. 5. Variation of dimensionless grinding rate constant with dimensionless

feed size (Quartz).

spective of the ball diameter. A possible explanation is

that in the initial stage of grinding, the grinding rate
itself depends on the ball diameter and the diameter
hardly affects the mechanism in the collision of the
balls and particles.
3.3. Application of modified Snows equation to the
experimental data

Fig. 7. Relationship between optimum feed size and ball diameter.

other, suggesting that the basis of comminution processes in a ball mill results from the interactions
between grinding balls and particles, and that the
essence of this mechanism does not change even if
the feed materials are changed. Eq. (6) can follow the
experimental results well with by choosing parameters,
a = 1.23 and c = 1.08.
3.4. Grinding rate constant of materials used

Fig. 6 shows the relationship between the dimensionless grinding rate constant and the dimensionless
feed size for the five kinds of solid materials used in
this experiment. The relationships look similar to each

Fig. 7 shows the relationship between the optimum feed

size and the ball diameter for silica glass, quartz, limestone,
gypsum and talc. The relationship is similar to that proposed

Fig. 6. Variation of dimensionless grinding rate constant with dimensionless

feed size (Materials used).

Fig. 8. Relationship between maximum value of grinding rate constant and

ball diameter.

N. Kotake et al. / Powder Technology 143 144 (2004) 196203

201

Table 7
Values of constants in Eqs. (10) and (11)
Material

AV

BV

Silica glass
Quartz
Limestone
Gypsum
Talc

0.13
0.22
0.19
0.17
0.17

0.84
0.60
0.51
0.60
0.48

0.012
0.015
0.0092 (dB V 20 mm)
0.027 (dB V 20 mm)
0.082 (dB V 10 mm)

1.27
1.21
1.42 (dB V 20 mm)
1.06 (dB V 20 mm)
0.89 (dB V 10 mm)

Table 8
Values of constants in Eq. (12)
Material

C1

C2

Silica glass
Quartz
Limestone
Gypsum
Talc

0.36
0.28
0.22
0.70
2.1

8.3
4.9
6.0
6.4
6.4

0.35
0.47
0.80
0.32
0.30

0.84
0.60
0.51
0.60
0.48

by Zhao et al. [9] for various ball media mills, and is

expressed as follows;
xm AdBB ;

10

where A and B are constants, respectively. B value in silica

glass is relatively larger than that in other materials, and one
of the reasons is considered that silica glass is artificially
made and others are natural materials.
Fig. 8 shows the relationship between the maximum
value of the grinding rate constant and the ball diameter
for the five solid materials. The following relation is
obtained from the solid lines shown in Fig. 8,
Km AVdBB V;

11

where AVand BVare constants, respectively.

These constants in Eqs. (10) and (11) are shown in
Table 7 for each material. Substituting Eqs. (10) and (11)

Fig. 9. Comparison of experimental value and those calculated by Eq. (12).

Fig. 10. Application of Eq. (9) to experimental results at ball diameter 3

mm.

into Eq. (6), the grinding rate constant for the each
material can be expressed by the ball diameter and the
feed size;


xf
K1 C1 dBm xaf exp C2 n
dB

ua 1:23;

12

where C1, C2, m and n are constants, respectively.

The values for the above constants are summarized in
Table 8. From this table, it is difficult to obtain definite
correlations between the constants and the properties of
materials shown in Table 1, and this would be a future
work.
Fig. 9 shows the comparison of the experimental results
and the calculated results of K1 obtained by using Eq. (12)
for all materials used in the present work. Fig. 9 indicates
that the predictions by Eq. (12) can satisfy about 85% of the
measurement values within the error of F 20 %. From this
result, the experimental values agree approximately with the
calculated results, and the validity of Eq. (12) is confirmed
in evaluating the grinding rate or the grindability for the
each material.

Fig. 11. Application of Eq. (9) to experimental results at ball diameter

10 mm.

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N. Kotake et al. / Powder Technology 143 144 (2004) 196203

3.5. Application of equation based on Tanakas theories to

experimental data
Figs. 10 and 11 show the relationships between the
grinding rate constant and the feed size for ball diameters,
3 and 10 mm, respectively, when four kinds of materials
were used. The results are also correlated by the convex
curves calculated by Eq. (9) based on the Tanakas considerations. As one can see from Eq. (12), it is found that the
experimental values of K1 at limestone are difficult to
evaluate using Eq. (9) because an exponent m of Eq. (12)
for limestone is much larger than that of Eq. (9), 0.25. Then
it is examined the relations of the constants C1V, C2Vin Eq.
(9) and the properties of the materials shown in Table 1. The
correlations are found between constants, C1V, C2V and
Youngs modulus Y. These correlations are given as follows;
C1 V 31:4Y 1:07 ;

13

C2 V 34:5Y 0:34 :

14

Substitution of Eqs. (13) and (14) into Eq. (9), Eq. (15) can
be given,


xf
K1 31:4Y 1:07 dB0:25 xf exp 34:5Y 0:34
:
dB

15

Fig. 12 shows the comparison of the experimental and

calculated values in the grinding rate constant. This figure
shows that the calculations by Eq. (15) satisfy about 85 % of
the experimental values within the error of F 30 %. The
results obtained by using Eq. (15) can predict roughly the
experimental values except limestone.

Fig. 12. Comparison of experimental value and those calculated by

Eq. (15).

The results in Figs. 9 and 12 indicate that the empirical

equation, Eq. (12), is useful to evaluate the effects of the ball
diameter and the feed size on the grinding rate constant for
the each material, and Eq. (15) based on Tanakas theories is
effective for rough estimation of the rate constant for
various ball diameters, feed sizes and materials.

4. Conclusion
In this study, we performed batch grinding tests of five
kinds of materials with a ball mill and investigated the
influences of ball diameters and feed sizes on the grinding
rate constant, i.e., selection function. The results were
summarized as follows.
1. The correlations were observed between the optimum
feed size and the ball diameter, and between the
maximum grinding rate constant and the ball diameter
for the materials used.
2. The empirical equations of the grinding rate constant for
the solid materials were obtained as a function of the ball
diameter and the feed size.
3. It was confirmed experimentally that the variation of
dimensionless grinding rate constant with feed size was
roughly analogous irrespective of ball diameters and
kinds of materials, and the revised Snows equation was
useful to explain experimental results.
4. The empirical equation based on Tanakas theories was
roughly possible to estimate the grinding rate constant
when varying with not only the ball diameter and the
feed size but also the property of material.
Nomenclature
a
constant in Eq. (4) (min a)
bi, j
fraction of broken particles of size j which falls
into the particle size i ( )
c
constant in Eq. (6) ( )
cV
constant in Eq. (8) ( )
C1
constant in Eq. (12) ( )
C2
constant in Eq. (12) ( )
C 1V
constant in Eq. (9) ( )
C 2V
constant in Eq. (9) ( )
dB
ball diameter (mm)
K1
grinding rate constant of feed size reduction ( = S1)
(min 1)
K1,calc. calculation value of K1 (min 1)
K1,exptl. experimental value of K1 (min 1)
Km
maximum value of K1 ( = Sm) (min 1)
m
constant in Eq. (12) ( )
m1(t)
mass fraction of maximum particle size at time t ( )
mi(t)
mass fraction of particle component i at time t ( )
mj(t)
mass fraction of particle component j at time t ( )
n
constant in Eq. (12) ( )
Q(z)
Gaussian distribution function ( )
R
mass fraction of feed size ( = m1(t)) ( )

N. Kotake et al. / Powder Technology 143 144 (2004) 196203

S1
S1,a
S1,b
Si
Sj
Sm
t
Y
xf
xm
z
a
l
lnr

selection function of maximum particle size

(min 1)
selection function in Eq. (7) (min 1)
selection function in Eq. (8) (min 1)
selection function of particle component i (min 1)
selection function of particle component j (min 1)
maximum value of S1 (min 1)
grinding time (min)
Youngs modulus (GPa)
feed size (mm)
feed size for which the rate constant K1 is
maximum at a given ball diameter (mm)
dimensionless parameter ( = ln(xf/l)/lnr) ( )
constant in Eqs. (4) (6) and (12) ( )
feed size at Q(z) = 0.5 (mm)
standard deviation of the probability function ( )

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