Powder Technology 124 (2002) 264 271

www.elsevier.com/locate/powtec

Robust control of a SAG mill

O. Galan *, G.W. Barton, J.A. Romagnoli
ORICAA Laboratory of Process Systems Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia

Abstract

It is now well accepted that process automation, closed-loop control and optimisation technologies enable higher feed rates, more
consistent product qualities, lower utility usage and higher yields in a diverse range of process industries. In the minerals processing industry,
as a general rule, it is advisable to consider the grinding circuit first, as good operation here is necessary for stable operation in the rest of the
plant. Operating conditions in a grinding circuit are frequently such that production is significantly reduced due to the effects of process
disturbances, most notably those associated with the feed ore. This paper demonstrates the design of a robust control scheme for a semi-
autogenous grinding (SAG) mill. Feedback (FB), feedback plus feedforward (FF) and reduced order (i.e. less complex) robust controllers
were all developed and testedeach providing tight control over the SAG mill power draw by adjusting the feed rate to the mill. This
example clearly shows that using the available Matlab-based controller design package, it is possible to develop robust (i.e. in terms of strict
guarantees on both controller performance and stability, despite model uncertainties) control systems for the minerals industry as readily as
for other industries where advanced control is more routinely used. D 2002 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.

Keywords: Grinding; Modelling; Control; Optimisation

1. Introduction this paper, a (conventional) population balance approach was

There are considerable economic incentives for utilising
advanced control techniques in the mineral processing
industry, typical drivers being increasing mine operating
costs (leading to demands on concentrator managers to
improve valuables recovery and/or plant throughput) and
the need to meet ever tighter environmental constraints. To
meet these demands, an efficient process control system in
seen as one of the most cost-effective options available.
However, to more fully exploit the capabilities of modern
data acquisition and control equipment, the minerals indus-
try needs to consider greater use of advanced (typically
model based) control systems.
The major problems associated with the modelling and
control of semi-autogenous grinding (SAG) mills are the
lack of on-line process information (such as particle size
distributions and ore hardness, and the inherent complexity
of the grinding process itself (which makes any mathematical
modelling from first principles a real challenge). A validated
dynamic model is generally the first step towards the
successful implementation of any advanced control system,
and fortunately a number of models have been proposed to
predict the dynamic behaviour of grinding processes [1]. In
*
Corresponding author. Fax: +61-2-93-51-28-54.
E-mail address: omarg@chem.eng.usyd.edu.au (O. Galan).
used to develop the necessary dynamic model of the SAG
mill in question.
A typical grinding circuit consists of a SAG mill, a ball
mill, a scats crusher, mill discharge screens, together with
primary and secondary cyclones. This study is focused on
the primary grinding circuit where the SAG mill is operating
in closed-loop fashion, as shown in Fig. 1. The fresh ore feed
(flowrate f1) is mixed with two recycled streams (the scats f4
and the primary cyclone underflow f8), with the combined
feed passing to the SAG mill f2. Water f3 is added to the SAG
mill, as needed, so that in the output f11, the solids density is
held at a set value. The pulp exit flow is then passed to
vibrating screens that direct almost all water and small
particles to a hopper where the solids content is adjusted
by water addition f10 prior to being pumped to the cyclones.
The cyclone overflow is sent to the flotation circuit, while in
this circuit, the cyclone underflow is split into twoone
stream being sent to the ball mill f9 for additional grinding,
while the other is recycled to the SAG mill f8.
2. Mathematical model of grinding circuit
The modelling approach taken here involved describing
the grinding process in terms of a population balance for
each particle size of interest [2]. A total of 26 particle sizes

0032-5910/02/$ - see front matter D 2002 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.

PII: S 0 0 3 2 - 5 9 1 0 ( 0 2 ) 0 0 0 2 1 - 9
 O. Galan et al. / Powder Technology 124 (2002) 264271 265

Fig. 1. Primary grinding circuit.

was used in this model, the largest size (designated size dsi X
i1
f2;i  f11;i aij rj sj  ri si i 2; . . . ; n  1 2
1) and smallest size (designated size n in the following dt j1
equations) being particles with nominal diameters of 152
and 0.001 mm, respectively. Such a population balance
approach gives rise to the following set of differential dsn X
n1

equations for the SAG mill (all variables are defined later f2;n  f11;n aij rj sj 3
dt j1
in the Nomenclature):
ds1 An additional differential equation is used to describe the
f2;1  f11;1  r1 s1 1
dt variation with time of the mass of steel balls within the SAG

Fig. 2. Nonconventional feedback feedforward (FB FF) control strategy.

266 O. Galan et al. / Powder Technology 124 (2002) 264271

mill, with Eq. (4) implying that the consumption rate is
proportional to the mass of balls within mill:
dB
Bi  BrB 4 primary grinding circuit control include increasing through-
dt
The remaining modelling equations comprise mass balance
relationships (which may be regarded as pseudo steady-state
because of their fast, relative to the SAG mill, dynamics)
together with a number of empirical relationships describing
the mill discharge flow rate and the efficiencies (i.e. particle
classification as a function of size) for the vibrating screens
and cyclones. These equations are well described in the
literature [1]; the only ones of relevance here being those
relating to the power requirement of the SAG mill.
The empirical relationship giving the gross power drawn
by the SAG mill is
3. SAG mill control
In general terms, the benefits sought from improved
put at the desired grind size, reduction of grinding ball
consumption and minimisation of the SAG mill power
requirement. In the absence of an adequate control system,
any disturbance to the process will be reflected in changes to
the solids hold-up within the SAG mill, changes in the
circulating loads, and eventually changes in the size distri-
bution of the product sent on to the flotation circuit.
In the plant under consideration, the major constraint on
maximising the feed rate to the plant is the limitation on the

P 25:9WE WL  2064:5 5

where the power drawn by an empty mill [3] is given by

PE 1:68D2:05 /0:667Ld L0:82 6

with the total load in the mill being given by

X
n
WL si B 7
i1

Due to proprietary reasons, the model discussed in this

paper is a scaled and modified version of the model used by
Northparks Mines. Thus, the values of the various param-
eters should only be considered as representative of the
typical input output behaviour of the process. The transfer
functions involved in this study are derived from simple
dynamical considerations.

2.1. Model validation

By putting all time derivatives equal to zero, the dynamic

SAG mill model is converted to a steady-state model
comprising a set of nonlinear algebraic equations (which
were solved using the Matlab package). Comparisons
showed that the predictions from this model were all within
F30% of plant measurements and comparable in accuracy
to results from a commercial mineral flowsheeting package.
The primary grinding circuit is subject to a number of
dynamic disturbances, one of the more common being a
change in the feed particle size distribution (which may be
characterised by the size for which 80% of the material is
smaller, F80). Detailed dynamic plant data was not avail-
able for comparison with the model predictions, although
all such predictions (such as an increase in the feed F80
parameter, indicating a coarse ore, causing the SAG mill
Fig. 3. Performance comparison between IMC PI and Hl controllers,
power draw and scats rate to both increase) were in respectively. (a) Closed-loop profile for the controlled variable (draw
qualitative agreement with the expectations of plant per- power). (b) Closed-loop profile for the manipulated variable (fresh ore feed
sonnel. rate).
 O. Galan et al. / Powder Technology 124 (2002) 264271
SAG mill draw power. If the feed size distribution were to
increase and/or the feed were to became harder, then more
solid material would be held up in the SAG mill, which
would draw more power. As a result, this study concentrated
on designing a controller whose objective was to keep the
SAG mill power at a set value (somewhat below the
maximum permissible) by manipulating the ore fresh feed
rate.
The simplest controller would employ feedback (FB)
only control by adjusting the SAG mill feed rate to maintain
the SAG mill power draw at its set-point value. As with any
feedback controller, such a system can only take action after
a disturbance has affected the process and caused a meas-
urable deviation from the set-point. A simple remedy here is
to include a feedforward (FF) control loop that also adjusts
the SAG mill power draw, but this time on the basis of a
measurement of the disturbance(s) affecting the system.
A feedback feedforward (FB FF) control system
should reduce the effects of disturbances propagated down-
stream through the process (here to the flotation circuit). To
reject disturbances, however, such a control scheme must be
able to detect them with reasonable accuracy. In this case,
the main disturbances are associated with fluctuations in the
feed ore physical properties (e.g. the hardness and size
distribution). Hardness and size distribution are known to
be correlatedin that a coarse feed is generally the result of
a hard ore, and vice versa. Thus, the only disturbance
considered in this study was the feed size distribution (as
measured by the F80 parameter) for which a number of
measurement devices are already available on the market.
The FB FF controller architecture is shown in Fig. 2,
where F80 is the disturbance measurement (80% passing
size in mm), F80,nom is the nominal value of the disturbance
Fig. 4. Robustness and performance test for the Hl controller.
267
(here 61.5 mm), P is the measured SAG mill power draw
(kW), Psp is the power draw set-point (kW), f1 is the fresh
ore feed rate, (t/h), while eP and e80 are errors (or deviations)
from their reference values.
Any process control book, such as Ref. [4], describes
straightforward procedures for designing conventional feed-
back and feedforward controllers. Similarly, any modern
distributed control scheme (DCS) has configurable versions
of such controllers that merely require the appropriate
tuning parameters to be specified. However, the FB FF
controllers generally available within a DCS are non-
robust in that they can provide no guarantees with regard
to loop performance and/or loop stability. If performance
and/or stability is inadequate, then the usual option is simply
to resort to empirical detuning of the control scheme. Since
the 1980s, however, modern control theory has made rapid
advances in terms of the development of techniques for
designing robust control schemes that can make powerful
guarantees with respect to control loop performance and
stability [5,6]. In Appendix A, one such robust design
technique will be presented and used to design an FB FF
controller that meets all user-specified performance and
stability requirements.
Fig. 3 compares the regulatory response of two robust
SAG mill controllers to a number of step changes in the
disturbance variable F80. At t=5 h, F80 was stepped up from
61.5 to 63.3 mm (i.e. the feed particle size distribution was
increased), while at t=36 h, F80 was stepped down from 63.3
to 57.7 mm (i.e. the feed particle size distribution was
decreased).
The PI response in Fig. 3 is for the case where a
proportional integral controller (as widely used in industry)
was employed. However, here, the PI controller was not
268 O. Galan et al. / Powder Technology 124 (2002) 264271
Fig. 5. Robustness for the PI controller. Limiting value (kc0.1) where
IMC PI is robust stable.
tuning using conventional methods but rather by designing
an internal model controller [5] and reconfiguring this as a
PI controller. The (reduced order) Hl controllers perform-
ance (see Appendix A) was quite good, clearly providing
extremely tight control. For the Hl controller case, it is also
possible to provide clear guarantee on the stability and
performance of the controller (see Fig. 4).
For the PI controller, the results for different values of k
are also included in Fig. 3. It is shown, in this case, how the
performance deteriorates when trying to improve robustness
(increasing k). The case for k=0.1 (limiting value of k for
robust stability) cannot be seen in the graph since it
coincides with the results obtained with the Hl controller.
The robust stability test for the PI controller are given in Fig.
5 (see Appendix B).
It should also be realised that both robust controllers
were asked to meet very tight stability and performance
specifications. If these design specifications were relaxed,
then these controllers would be able to take more aggressive
control actionresulting in tighter regulatory control. This
trade-off is one of the major benefits of robust controlby
setting the stability/performance requirements, the control
engineer is indirectly setting how aggressive the controller
can be. Thus, this approach is providing a much more
systematic means for designing a controller than the heu-
ristic rules (such as Ziegler-Nichols [4]) commonly used to
tune feedback controllers.
4. Conclusions
A dynamic model of an industrial primary grinding
circuit has been developed. The steady-state version of this
model was in acceptable agreement with both plant data and
results from a commercial mineral flowsheeting package.
The SAG mill component of this dynamic model was used
to design and test a robust controller whose aim was to
maximise feed throughput by maintaining the SAG mill
draw power close to its maximum permissible level.
The robust control design methodology (all of which is
implemented within Matlab based software) was used to
design two Hl controllers, both of which meet all stability
and performance specifications.
The SAG mill example used in this study is a simple
single-input single-output (SISO) system. One of the major
attractions of this methodology is that it can be readily used
to design robust multivariable controllers that take account
of all control loop interactions while still guaranteeing all
user specified stability and performance requirements.
Indeed, robust multivariable controllers are now success-
fully operating in a number of industrial applications (e.g.
providing control on complex distillation columns with tight
product quality specifications). It would seem that such an
approach to controller design has a place in the minerals
processing industry wherever similar control quality is
required.
5. Nomenclature
ai,j appearance (or breakage) function for size j mate-
rial being ground to size i [t/t]
B grinding ball charge within the SAG mill [t]
Bi grinding balls addition rate [t/h]
D diameter of the cylindrical section of SAG mill
[m]
fi total flowrate of stream i [t/h]
fi,j flow of solids of size j in stream i [t/h]
L length of cylindrical section of SAG mill [m]
Ld length of cone-end of SAG mill [m]
WL loaded mill weight [t]
WE empty mill weight [t]
P SAG mill draw power [kW]
PE empty SAG mill draw power [kW]
ri breakage rate of solid particles of size i [h1]
rB rate constant for attrition of grinding balls [h1]
/ fraction of SAG mills critical speed
rmax maximum singular value
Appendix A. Hlrobust linear controller design
The classical approach to feedback controller design has
followed a frequency domain approach, where for a given
single-input single-output (SISO) plant described by the
linear transfer function model gp (s), a controller k1 (s) is
designed, such that the closed-loop system satisfies the
basic requirements of stability, performance and robustness
[6].
Simply stated, the linear stability condition demands that
all roots of the characteristic equation 1+gp(s)k1(s)=0 reside
in the left-half complex plane. Similarly, the performance
 O. Galan et al. / Powder Technology 124 (2002) 264271 269

requirement imposes magnitude constraints on the sensitiv-
ity function
1 both be made small simultaneously.
Ss A:1
1 gp sk1 s
to be small for all frequencies where the disturbances and/or
set-point signals are large.
The last design requirement, robustness, asks for both
stability and performance to be maintained not only for a
nominal plant model, but also for a set of neighbouring plant
models that result from the unavoidable presence of mod-
elling errors (generally referred to as model uncertainties).
This robust requirement imposes other magnitude con-
straints on various system transfer functions. One com-
monly used description of model uncertainties is the so-
called unstructured multiplicative uncertainty
gp s 1 wy sDsgp s A:2
where gp (s) represents the nominal plant model, gp (s) is the
uncertain plant model, wy (s) is a stable minimum-phase
system and D(s) is any stable perturbation (or model
uncertainty) whose transfer function satisfies
rmax D jxV1; bx A:3
Stability for this uncertain system requires that the comple-
mentary output sensitivity functions
gp sk1 s
Ty s A:4
1 gp sk1 s
gp sk2 s gd s
Td s A:5
1 gp sk1 s
be small for all frequencies where the uncertainties are large.
In an analogous way, performance for this uncertain
system requires that the sensitivity transfer function S (s)
of the closed-loop system be sufficiently small (in a
weighted Hl-sense) for the worst case plant:
inherent trade-off involved in the solution of the robustness
problem, as since S (s)+Ty (s)=I, then S (s) and Ty (s) cannot
A.1. Hlcontroller design for SAG mill
The first step in the design of a robust controller for the
SAG mill involves obtaining linear dynamic models
(expressed as transfer functions) for the impact of the
manipulated variable (i.e. feed flowrate) and the disturbance
(i.e. the F80 parameter) on the variable to be controlled (i.e.
the SAG mill power draw).
ys gy sus gd sds A:9
These transfer functions were obtained by putting step
changes (in feed flowrate or F80) into the nonlinear dynamic
SAG mill model and fitting the responses obtained to low-
order linear models. In both cases, a simple first-order model
(with no appreciable dead-time) gave an acceptable fit.
2:93
gp s A:10
0:21s 1
25:21
gd s A:11
0:14s 1
As outlined above, the robust design problem involves the
synthesis of a controller k1 (s) that both stabilises the nominal
plant and shapes a number of magnitude functions such that
all performance specifications are met. This shaping proc-
ess is a challenge as (i) the stability and performance
requirements are, to some extent, contradictory, and (ii) the
shaping process is carried out in the frequency domain.
Effective techniques are, however, available using opti-
misation tools and Hl methods to design robust controllers
that minimise the weighted mixed sensitivity criterion [7]:
min c A:12
k1 s;k2 s
rmax y jx rmax ed jx rmax ey jx

rmax we;y jxS jx < 1 bx A:6 rmax u jxVc c>0

where
More formally, let us suppose that the nominal (i.e. based on
the nominal model) feedback system is stable, then the ys wy sTy srs Td sds A:13
perturbed (or uncertain) system is also stable for all uncer-
tain plants if only if, ey s we;y sSsrs A:14

rmax wy jxTy jx < 1; bx A:7 ed s we;d sds A:15

while the robust performance objective reduces to [5] us wu sk2 sds k1 sSsrs A:16

rmax we;y jxS jx subject to:

rmax wy jxTy jx < 1; bx A:8 rmax d jxV1; rmax r jxV1 A:17

Condition (A.7) establishes the robust stability of the feed- Note that an actuator weighting wu (s) is generally included
back control loop while condition (A.8) demonstrates the in Eq. (A.12) (along with weighting functions for the error
270 O. Galan et al. / Powder Technology 124 (2002) 264271

we,y and control loop output wy (s), as this can often play a Table 1
Parameters for robust SAG mill controller
significant role in shaping the closed-loop performance and
robustness behaviour. i ai(1) ai(2) bi
The shaping process referred to previously involves 0 1 0 1
determining the three weighting functions in Eq. (A.11) so 1 5.54103 2.96103 997.79
2 2.16105 1.14105 3.62104
as to ensure both controller stability and performance.
3 2.19106 1.15106 3.16105
Although guidelines exist, this procedure generally requires 4 6.39106 3.16106 6.18105
a number of iterations until a solution is found satisfying all 5 1.39106 1.58104 2.78103
requirements. 6 3.13103 19.56 3.14
For the SAG mill case, the following weighting functions
were found to be satisfactory (Fig. 6).
prising a 6th-order numerator and denominator (the
4:4s 1
3 controller parameters are given in Table 1). However, such
we;y s 10 A:18
440:8s 1 controllers are simple to program within a modern DCS, and
as such are becoming increasingly commonplace.
4:4s 1
we;d s 10 A:19 One of the nice features of the robust design procedure
440:8s 1 is that it is a straightforward matter to consider using lower
3:6s 1 order controllers [8]. In some cases, this will be infeasible as
wy s 0:05 A:20 reducing the controller complexity generally reduces its
0:11s 1
flexibility in terms of meeting all stability and performance
28:6s 1 requirements. However, in the SAG mill case, it proved
wu s 103 A:21
0:04s 1 possible to design a simple FB FF controller where each
component had the form of a low-order lead lag transfer
Using the process transfer functions together with the
function:
weighting functions above, the following robust controller
was determined for the SAG mill. Note that this controller s1;i s 1
kreduced;i s Ki A:24
has been split into two to provide feedback (i.e. k1 (s)) and s2;i s 1s3;i s 1
feedforward (i.e. k2 (s)) components:
2 3 This robust controller would be particularly easy to imple-
k1 s ment within a DCS. The controller parameters for this
Ks 4 5 A:22 reduced order controller are given in Table 2.
k2 s
X
N
j Appendix B. IMC PI controller design
ai sN i
i0
kj s j 1; 2 A:23 A typical PI controller has the following transfer func-
X N
N i tion:
bi s
i0  
Kc
us uss Kc es B:1
This robust version bears little resemblance to a conven- sI s
tional [4] FB FF controller, with each component com-
For a first-order plant given by:
K
gp s B:2
ss 1
The PI tuning parameters are as follows [5]:
s
Kc B:3
kK
Kc 1
B:4
sI kK

Table 2
Parameters for (reduced order) robust SAG mill controller
i Ki s1,i s2,i s3,i
1 982.70 2.58 0.0011 434.78
Fig. 6. Hl weighting functions. 2 8.15 166.66 0.0011 434.78
 O. Galan et al. / Powder Technology 124 (2002) 264271
For instance, when K=2.93, s=0.21 and k=0.1, it results in
Kc=0.7161 and Kc/sI =3.4130/sI =3.4130. The steady-state
value for the input is uss=250 t/h.
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