19-Sep-15

Size Reduction Operations

Open-Circuit & Close-Circuit Operation

I. Open-Circuit:
 Feed is broken by passing it once through the mill & no return of
oversize particles to the machine for further reduction
 Require excessive energy  as much energy wasted in
regrinding of particles that are already fine enough

II. Close-Circuit:
 Therefore, it is economical to remove partially ground material
 then after size-separation return the oversize to reground &
separate undersize as products or re-feed to other machine for
further size-reduction
 An example of close-circuit operation is shown in the Figure.

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 19-Sep-15

• Product from Gyratory crusher

 screened into fines,
intermediate, & oversize (coarse)
• Oversize (coarse)  returned to
Gyratory
Fines  fed directly to ball-mill for
final reduction
Intermediate  broken in rod-mill
before they enter the ball-mill
• Oversize particles in ball-milled
product separated by centrifugal-
classifier  oversize with water
returned to the ball-mill
• Final Product of ball-mill obtained
from classifier as a slurry
(containing particles of acceptable
size)
Flow-sheet for close-circuit operation

Processing Factors
1. Feed-Nature (Primary factor):
 Grindability depends on: Hardness, toughness, and structure (crystallinity & clevage) of
the material
 Hardness (measured in Moh scale): (i) Good indication of abrasive character means
extent of wear that will be caused on grinding media. (ii) Resistance to crushing
 Toughness: Indicates impact resistance of material. Example, gypsum, some plastics are
soft & tough  not easily breakable. Whereas, coal is both soft & friable.
 Crystallinity: shape of product form depends on crystalline structure. Example, galena 
cubes; mica  flat scales; magnetite  rounded grains
 Cleavage: Fibrous materials such as wood and asbestos do not possess cleavage planes
 not readily crushed  thus torn or shredded using Disintegrators
 Gridability determines by ‘Drop weight method’ or by ‘Hardgrove method’
2. Moisture Content:
 < 3-4 wt% (desirable, acts as binding agent & prevents loss fines). If exceeds, most
materials become sticky or pasty mass with a tendency to clog.
 However, large excess of water (≥ 50%)
 Furnishing a means for transporting solids as suspension or slurry
 Help in wet grinding

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 19-Sep-15

Processing Factors ….. (continued)

3. Reduction Ratio (RR): Ratio of dia of feed to dia of product particles  RR = DF/DP (For
coarse crusher – 3 to 7; Fine grinders – as high as 100)
4. Feed-Size:
 The particles in the feed must be of appropriate size.
 Must not be so large that cannot be broken by the mill.
 If too many particles are very fine, the effectiveness of intermediate crushers & grinders
is seriously reduced.
5. Feed-Rate:
 In continuous mills, feed rate must be within the close limits to avoid chocking or erratic
variations in load & yet make full use of the capacity of the machine
 In cutting sheet into precise dimensions, exact control of the feed rate is essential
6. Discharge-Rate:
 In continuous process, discharge must be equal to feed-rate to avoid buildup
 Free-Crushing: Crushed product is continuously discharged, separated, and returned as
soon as it is produced in such a way that prevents the buildup as well as formation of
excessive amounts of fines by limiting number of contacts
 Choke-Crushing: Crusher is fed and kept filled for long time so that it does not freely
discharge the product. Lowers the capacity BUT is used when large quantity of fines is
desired.

Processing Factors ….. (continued)

6. Energy Consumption: Products becomes more finer  capacity of given mill
diminishes & energy requirement increases.
Figure shows typical amount of energy consumed per unit mass of product by
the different kinds of size-reducing equipments

7. Removal or Supply of Heat: Bulk of energy converted to heat, which may raise
the temperature significantly and solid may melt or decomposed  heat
removal is necessary. Sometimes drastic temperature change with liquid
nitrogen alters breaking characteristics of solid and may be useful in making
solid friable.

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 19-Sep-15

Calculations for Equipments Design &

Selection

Jaw Crusher & Gyratory Crusher

• Gape = Maximum distance b/w the crushing surfaces
According to Taggart:
If T = Capacity in tons/h; G = Gape in inches
Selection criteria:
(T/G2) < 0.115  use Jaw crusher
(T/G2) < 0.115  use Gyratory crusher

• Empirical formula for Capacity (tons/h) of

Jaw and Gyratory crusher
Capacity, T = 93 (LS)
Where; L = Length of feed opening in cm
S = Maximum width of discharge opening, cm
In Jaw crusher: L – measured normal to gape
In Gyratory crusher: L – the perimeter the circle whose diameter is the
arithmetic average of the diameter of two cones)
This above equation is valid for gapes of 10 to 60 cm

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 19-Sep-15

Derivation of ‘Angle of Nip (Ѳn)’ for Roll Crusher

• Ѳ = The angle b/w two convergent surfaces
of crusher at the point of contact with the
feed

• Angle of nip (Ѳn)depends on

- diameter of rolls (DR)
- feed and product size

Derive for spherical particle (diameter DF) fed

to a pair of crushing rolls
- Let DP be the interspacing b/w rolls
(also the maximum dimension of product)

- Two forces acting on the feed particle

- Tangential force (FT)
- Normal force (FN)

Derivation of ‘Angle of Nip (Ѳn)’ for Roll Crusher …… (continued)

• Resultant force (FR)  makes a -ve angle with horizontal  FR acts downwards
 then feed particle will be pushed through the rolls  CRUSHING
Resultant force (FR)  makes a +ve angle with horizontal  FR acts upwards
 then feed particle will be thrown out from the rolls  NO CRUSHING
Limiting case: FR is just horizontal  At this condition; Ѳ = Ѳn
(Ѳn is the maximum permissible value of Ѳ beyond which crushing will not
accomplished)

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 19-Sep-15

Derivation of ‘Angle of Nip (Ѳn)’ for Roll Crusher …… (continued)

• At FR is just horizontal
Vertical component of FT = FTCos(Ѳn/2)
Vertical component of FN = FNSin(Ѳn/2)
Both the vertical components balance each other :
FTCos( n /2)  FNSin(  n /2)
 FT /FN   '  tan(n /2)
 Angle of Nip (n )  2tan -1(  ' ) (1)
where ,  ' is the coefficien t of friction

Also, from the Figure :

(D R / 2)  (D P / 2) D R  DP
Cos(/2)   (2)
(D R / 2)  (D F / 2) D R  D F
In industrial operations general practice is to determine the theoretic al minimum D R ,
add 1 - inch for wearin g, select the next larger industrial roll.

Derivation of ‘Angle of Nip (Ѳn)’ for Roll Crusher …… (continued)

For smooth steel rolls the value of n is usually about 32 for ordinary rocks.

from the Eq 2 :
DR  DP
Cos(32/2)  0.9613   D F  0.04D R  D P
DR  DF
 (D F / 2)  0.04R  d  Limiting Size

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 19-Sep-15

Derivation of ‘Angle of Nip (Ѳn)’ for Roll Crusher …… (continued)

If the rolls are operating on a

slab of DF

Calculation for Angle of Bite (n ) will be

same as in Eq.1

from the Figure :

ae (D R / 2)  (DP / 2) DR  DP DR  DP
Cos(/2)    
ac (D R / 2)  bc 2bd DF
DR  DR 
Cos( /2) Cos(/2)
DF  DP
 Cos( /2)  1  (2)
DR

Hammer Mill
Capacity of Hammer Mill can be calculated using one of the
correlations proposed by Taggart:

KD 2 LN 2
T
3.543( RR  1)
where ,
T  Capacity, kg/h
D  Diameter of rotor, m
L  Length of rotor, m
N  rpm of rotor
RR  Reduction ratio
K is an empirical constant and its values varies from 4.0 to 6.2

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 19-Sep-15

Tumbling Mill
Ball-Mill Rod-Mill Tube-Mill Compartment-Mill
Length-to-Diameter Close to 1 1.5 to 3.0 > 2.0 > 2.0
Ratio (L/D)

• The speed of rotation is a crucial parameter for tumbling mill.

• At low speeds  grinding media (say, balls) lifted and roll
back over the feed particles
• At higher rpm  balls are lifted & fall back by gravity on
feed particles
• If rpm further increased
 a stage will be reached when balls remain sticking to
the wall of mill due to large centrifugal forces
 practically NO CRUSHING (said to be Centrifuging)
• The speed at which centrifuging just starts
 Critical Speed NC of the mill

Tumbling Mill …… (continued)

• Forces act on the ball: Centripetal, Centrifugal, & Gravitational
• Centripetal force is the component of the gravitational force = mgCos(α)
At α = 0: Centripetal force = Gravitational force = mg

At the critical speed NC (That is, at α = 0)

Centripeta l force  Centrifuga l force
 mg  m 2 (R  r)  g  (2N C ) 2 (R  r)
1 g
 NC 
2 (R  r)
where, N C  Critical speed
R  Radius of roll
r  Radius of ball
  Rotational speed
Mills run at 65 – 80% of the critical speed, with lower values for wet
grinding in viscous suspensions

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 19-Sep-15

Tutorial # 4
1. (a) Derive the equation for ‘Angle of Nip (Ѳn)’ for Roll Crusher.
(Ѳ = The angle b/w two convergent surfaces of crusher at the point of contact with
the feed; DR = diameter of rolls; DP = gap b/w the rollers)

1. (b) A pair of rolls is to take a feed equivalent to spheres of 3 cm in diameter and

crush them to spheres having 1 cm diameter. What is reduction ratio of this
operation. If the coefficient of friction is 0.29, what would be the diameter of
rolls?

2. In a ball mill of diameter 2000 mm, 100 mm

diameter steel balls are being used for grinding.
Presently, for the material being ground, the mill is
run at 15 rpm. At what speed will the mill have to
be run if the 100 mm balls are replaced by 50 mm
balls, all the other conditions remaining the same?

1 g
NC 
2 (R  r)
where, N C  Critical speed
R  Radius of roll
r  Radius of ball
  Rotational speed

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 19-Sep-15

Solution # 1
Angle of Nip (  n )  2tan -1 (  ' ) (1)

DR  DP
Cos(  /2)  (2)
DR  DF

We have, µ’ = coefficient of friction = 0.29

Therefore, Ѳn = 2tan-1(0.29) = 32.36o

And we have,
DP = 1 cm (because maximum particle size will be equal to the gap b/w the rollers)
DF = 3 cm

Reduction ratio = 3/1 = 3

Substituting for the known quantities in the equation 2:

Cos (16.18) = 0.9604 = (DR + 1)/(DR + 3)  DR = 47.54 cm

Solution # 2
1 g
NC 
2 (R  r)

For R = 1000 mm = 1 m and r = 50 mm = 0.05 m

 NC = (1/2π) x {9.81/(1 – 0.05)}0.5 x 60 = 30.7 rpm

But the mill is operated at a speed of 15 rpm. Therefore, the mill is

operated at 100 x 15/30.7 = 48.86 % of critical speed

If 100 mm dia balls are replaced by 50 mm dia balls, and the other
conditions are remaining the same,

Speed of ball mill = [0.4886/(2π)] x [9.81/(1 - 0.025)]0.5 = 14.8 rpm

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 19-Sep-15

Home Assignment (# 2)

1. Plot a graph for Angle of nip (Ѳn) vs. µ‘ (µ‘ values: 0.2, 0.3, 0.4,
0.5., 0.6, 0.7) and explain the graph.

2. Ѳn : 8°, 16°, 32° (Angle of Nip)

RR : 2, 4, 6, 8 (Reduction ratio)
DF : 10, 30, 50 mm (Diameter of feed particles)

(a) Plot DR (diameter of roll) vs. RR for each Ѳn at different DF

and discuss the result.
(b) Plot DR vs. RR for each DF at different Ѳn and discuss the
result.
3. Compare the plots obtained from Q1 & Q2(a),(b) and discuss. If
DF & RR are fixed, which type of materials (in term of coefficient
of friction) consume less power and why?

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