Determining the steel media abrasive wear as a function of applied force and friction

In the ongoing effort to develop a tumbling mill total steel media wear model, a decoupled abrasive, corrosive and impact wear model is used in conjunction with a mill DEM charge motion model. In order to determine the contribution of abrasive wear to total steel media wear in mills as a function of charge motion, it is necessary to determine abrasive wear as a function of applied force and slippage speed. To this end, a modified abrasion wheel testing apparatus was developed and used under dry conditions to determine the relationship between abrasive wear, applied force and friction. Four different ores from North American mines were examined where the test specimens used with each abrasive were cut from grinding media supplied by the corresponding mines. The results showed an initial expected increase in wear, as measured by the volume (mass) loss, with increasing applied force. The mass loss however became constant beyond a certain applied force. The friction remained relatively constant for each ore/media combination over the test range. Further abrasion wear research will include testing of ore under wet conditions.