Eur. Phys. J. B 16, 169-182 (2000)
https://doi.org/10.1007/PL00011052

Molecular dynamics of comminution in ball mills

¹ Logos Verlag Berlin, Michaelkirchstraße 13, 10179 Berlin, Germany
² Humboldt-Universität, Institut für Physik, Invalidenstraße 110, 10115 Berlin, Germany
³ ICA1, Universität Stuttgart, Pfaffenwaldring 27, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany

Corresponding author: ^a thorsten@physik.hu-berlin.de

Received: 19 January 2000
Published online: 15 July 2000

Abstract

We investigate autogenous fragmentation of dry granular material in rotating cylinders using two-dimensional molecular dynamics. By evaluation of spatial force distributions achieved numerically for various rotation velocities we argue that comminution occurs mainly due to the existence of force chains. A statistical analysis of these force chains explains the spatial distribution of comminution efficiency in ball mills as measured experimentally by Rothkegel [1] and Rolf [2]. For animated sequences of our simulations see http://summa.physik.hu-berlin.de/~kies/mill/bm.html