Development of ADEM–CFD model for analyzing dynamic and breakage behavior of aggregates in wet ball milling

A new simulation method was developed for analyzing the grinding mechanisms of aggregates in wet ball milling. The calculation of the following five behaviors is needed in this case: dynamics and breakage behaviors of aggregates, collisions of aggregates, a motion of fluid including aggregates, ball-fluid interaction forces and aggregate-fluid interaction forces. The dynamic and breakage behaviors of aggregates were calculated by advanced discrete element method (ADEM). The collisions of aggregates were represented by DEM. The motion of fluid including aggregates was solved by spatially-averaged equations of the fluid with finite difference method (FDM). The ball-fluid interaction forces were calculated by immersed boundary method (IBM). The model for the aggregate-fluid interaction forces has not been established, so that a new simulation model for estimating them was developed and named ADEM-computational fluid dynamics (ADEM-CFD) model. The ADEM-CFD model was verified by comparing the fluid drag coefficients obtained by White's equation. The new simulation method considering the five behaviors was validated by comparing with an experiment about dynamic and breakage behaviors of aggregates around a falling ball in liquid. It is found that the new simulation method proposed could analyze the dynamic and breakage behaviors of aggregates in wet ball milling.