Grain-Based DEM for Particle Bed Comminution

The comminution at the grain size level for liberating the valuable minerals usually requires the highest size-specific energy. Therefore, a full understanding of the comminution process at this level is essential. Models based on the Discrete Element Method (DEM) can become a helpful tool for this purpose. One major concern, however, is the missing representativeness of mineral microstructures in the simulations. In this study, a method to overcome this limitation is presented. The authors show how a realistic microstructure can be implemented into a particle bed comminution simulation using grain-based models in DEM (GBM-DEM). The improved algorithm-based modeling approach is exemplarily compared to an equivalent real experiment. The simulated results obtained within the presented study show that it is possible to reproduce the interfacial breakage observed in real experiments at the grain size level. This is of particular interest as the aim of comminution in mineral processing is not only the size reduction of coarse particles, but often an efficient liberation of valuable components. Simulations with automatically generated real mineral microstructures will help to further improve the efficiency of ore processing.