Effect of Slurry Concentration on the Ceramic Ball Grinding Characteristics of Magnetite

Ceramic grinding, which in this paper is defined as a method of using ceramic materials as grinding media, is favored by many processing plants as an emerging high-efficiency and energy-saving grinding method. This paper investigates the effect of slurry mass concentration on the grinding characteristics of magnetite by taking the feed of the secondary ball mill for processing magnetite as the research object. The study results show that the slurry mass concentration significantly affects the ceramic ball grinding characteristics of magnetite, especially for coarse particles. When the grinding concentration is higher than 50%, the breakage rate of magnetite plummets to 1/3 of the value at low mass concentrations. The standard deviation of the breakage rate relative to the concentration gradually decreases as the feed size falls, indicating that the coarser the feed size, the more sensitive the ceramic ball grinding is to the concentration, and thus industrial secondary ceramic ball mills need to avoid grinding under high-quality concentrations. The change in the consistency parameter of distribution function and zero-order output characteristics signals a radical variation in the grinding characteristics of magnetite using the ceramic ball grinding method compared to conventional grinding. Because the ceramic ball grinding method can greatly reduce energy consumption while lowering the chance of overgrinding, this grinding method deserves more attention as the world works to reach carbon neutrality and emissions peak.