Paper detail

Modeling comminution processes in ball mills as a canonical ensemble

A new approach to describe comminution processes in general ball mills as a macroscopic canonical ensemble is proposed. Using hamiltonian method, the model is able to take simultaneously into account the internal dynamics from mechanical motions inside the vial and external effects like electromagnetic and gravitational forces. Relevant physical observables are extracted using statistical mechanics approach through partition function at finite temperature. The method enables numerical calculation using Monte Carlo technique to obtain, for instance particle number evolution in term of system temperature. It is argued that the method is experimentally more verifiable than the conventional approaches based on geometrical displacements. An example of simulation for typical spex mill is also given.