Minerals Engineering 64 (2014) 9296

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Minerals Engineering
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/mineng

Model predictive control of semiautogenous mills (sag)

Jos-Luis Salazar a,b,, Hctor Valds-Gonzlez a, Eduardo Vyhmesiter a, Francisco Cubillos b
a
Facultad de Ingeniera, Universidad Andres Bello, Sazie 2325, Santiago, Chile
b
Dep. de Ing. Qumica, Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Casilla 10233, Santiago, Chile

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The present manuscript focuses on the development of a multivariable control based on the MPC strategy
Received 12 September 2013 for a semiautogenous grinding (SAG) device. A previously published specic SAG model that uses a deep
Accepted 31 March 2014 analysis of the internal device behavior was used for the MPC strategy development. SimulinkTM software
was used for the dynamic representation and control development. The selection of controlled and
manipulated variables took into account performance and functional criteria. The power draw, volumet-
Keywords: ric lling level, and a size reduction percentage were the controlled variables, while the fresh ore feed
MPC
rate, fresh water feed rate, and the SAG rotation speed were the manipulated variables. The controller
SAG mill
Modeling
response showed a suitable control behavior independent of the noisy multivariable modication.
Simulation 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Mill control

1. Introduction Historically, grinding circuits have been controlled by PID con-

The grinding process is known as one of the most energy inten-
sive and important operation units in the mineral processing
industry. In fact, the grinding process is the main cost involved
in the ore physical treatment, reaching almost 5070% of the con-
centrator plant operating costs (Yang et al., 2010a; Sbarbaro et al.,
2005). Given the importance of this step in the minerals recovery
rate, its optimization from an economic and a processing perspec-
tive is one of the focuses of the mineral processing industry.
Optimization of the grinding process requires a deep under-
standing of the phenomenological process and the selection of
suitable equipment to process, monitor, and control (which
includes the selection of relevant variables that affect the process)
the mineral grinding step.
Among the different grinding processes, Autogenous (AG) and
Semi-Autogenous (SAG) mills are widely used for ore size reduc-
tion. The main difference between these two mills is the use of
steel balls as grinding media, typically in the order of 612% in vol-
ume (Sbarbaro et al., 2005), in the SAG mills. With the addition of
grinding media, the SAG mill has shown to be more exible in
operations than AG mills, since it allows the economic treatment
of a wider variety of feed materials (Maleki-Moghaddam et al.,
2012) which has led to an increased incorporation of SAG mills
in different mining industries.
Corresponding author at: Facultad de Ingeniera, Universidad Andres Bello,
Sazie 2325, Santiago, Chile. Tel.: +56 226618265; fax: +56 2 266182656.
E-mail address: jlsalazar@unab.cl (J.-L. Salazar).
trollers that do not pay much attention to multivariable interac-
tions, resulting in slow responses. Multivariable control strategies
have also been applied; however, drawbacks such as slow
response, residual interactions, troublesome tuning, and poor fre-
quency domain design have remained (Ramasamy et al., 2005).
Additionally, grinding circuits possess large time lags, time-varying
parameters, non-linear behavior, and strongly dependent process
variables, which make the control process a complex task.
Different control strategies have been used with varying
degrees of success for grinding circuits, such as ProportionalInte-
gralDifferential control (PID) (Sbarbaro et al., 2005), Model Pre-
dictive Control (Niemi et al., 1997; Ramasamy et al., 2005; Chen
et al., 2008, 2009), Disturbance Observer Based Control (Yang
et al., 2010b), Neurocontrol (Conradie and Aldrich, 2001;
Govindhasamy et al., 2005), and Expert Control (Bouche et al.,
2005), among others. The last which has many industrial applica-
tions (Herbst et al., 1992).
Sbarbaro et al. (2005) proposed the use of Smith Predictors,
which are used to compensate the time delays involved in the
ore processing (Smith, 1957), in a multiple-inputsingle-output
(MISO) control strategy. The output was set as the total tonnage
and the inputs were the feeder settings. As observed in that work,
the PID controller was not able to cope with the time delays, while
the MISO controller showed a better response. Nevertheless, as sta-
ted by Chen et al. (2007), a ball mill grinding circuit is essentially a
multiple-input-multiple-out (MIMO) system with strong coupling
among process variables. Radhakrishnan (1999) and Pomerleau
et al. (2000) performed one of the rst MIMO control schemes
for ore milling processes; in their work they used the fresh feed

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mineng.2014.03.029
0892-6875/ 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 J.-L. Salazar et al. / Minerals Engineering 64 (2014) 9296
rate and water addition rate as the manipulated variables, while
the particle product size and other variables related to the product
rate as the control variables.
Regretfully, as mentioned by Chen et al. (2007), such control
systems cannot operate for long period of times since other vari-
ables, such as the sump level, should be considered. Chen et al.
(2007) proposed the use of a MIMO scheme of control where four
manipulated variables were used to control four output variables.
Specically, the fresh ore feed rate, mill feed water ow rate, dilu-
tion water ow rate, and pump speed were the manipulated vari-
ables, while the particle size, mill solids concentration, circulating
load and sump level were the controlled variables. In this work, a
purely empirical model was used to relate SAG mill inputs and out-
puts variables. Therefore, this model decrease its credibility for
extrapolating/interpolating information in situations other than
the one used in the model generation. Nevertheless, the MIMO
Model Predictive Control (MPC) strategy showed a signicant
improvement in performance compared to MIMO coupled PID con-
trol schemes.
The MPC control strategy has successfully been applied to
diverse systems. It has been generally accepted due to its straight-
forward tuning, extension to MIMO systems, and modeling of com-
plex dynamic systems. Additionally, it is recognized for the use of
non-linear models, constraints handling, control of cumbersome
systems (e.g. large time delays, open-loop unstable, etc.), and the
introduction of feed-forward action for compensation of measur-
able disturbances (Ramasamy et al., 2005).
Wei and Craig (2009) surveyed multiple grind circuits from an
economic and control strategy point of view. They noted that for
most experts familiar with grinding mills, the main considerations
when choosing the controlled variables are the efciency of the
downstream process (particle size), system stability (sump level),
sump discharge slurry density, and efcient power usage (mill
load). They also noted that the most commonly manipulated vari-
ables are the ow rate of water to the sump, the ow rate of water
to the mill, the feed ratio of solids to the mill, and the ow rate of
the sump discharge slurry.
In the present manuscript, a SAG multivariable MPC controller
is designed. The designed controller is based on a previously pub-
lished model that used phenomenological representations, empir-
ical representations, and real grinding process information,
thereby obtaining a model that can be employed in a wider range
of operations compared with purely empirical representations. For
manipulated variables, the ore sump feed rate, water sump feed
rate, and the mill critical speed fraction were chosen in order to fol-
low the industrial perspective of control as mentioned in Wei and
Craigs work (Wei and Craig, 2009). For the controlled variables,
the mill power draw, the ll level, and the pebbles reduction per-
centage were used in order to control some of the most relevant
variables that have an economic/stability impact on the milling
process and subsequent operational units performance (i.e. power
draw and ll level for the mill process and the pebble reduction
percentage for subsequent processing).
2. Modeling
2.1. Dynamic SAG mill model
The mill model is based on a previous paper published by
Salazar et al. (2009). For further information on the modeling pro-
cess, readers are encouraged to review the cited article. The mod-
eling is performed by formulating non-steady-state balances in the
milling equipment along with force conservation relations and
hydraulic considerations. The input variables are the water ow
rate, the mineral ow rate, the mineral size distribution, the grind-
93
ing media mass ow rate, and the mill critical speed fraction. The
model outputs are the power-draw, load level, ball weight fraction,
mineral discharge rate, mineral discharge size distribution, water
discharge rate, bearing pressure, pebble throughput, and toe and
shoulder angles of the internal load.
The mill modeling was performed by subdividing the mill
chamber into two zones. In the rst zone, the milling process is
identied and modeled, while in the second zone, an internal clas-
sication process is performed for generating a nal discharged
product. To complete the system description, a relation between
the feed stream and the mill charge level (known as transport rate)
was used; further description can be seen in the works of Apelt
et al. (2002a,b).
The classication process interconnects both zones, and uses a
classication probability to obtain a measure of the milled load
that will be discharged or returned for further grinding. The classi-
cation probability depends on the particle size; the bigger parti-
cles in the distribution were fully returned to the grinding
process, the smaller particles were fully discharged, and the parti-
cles in between had an increased probability of being discharged as
their size decreased.
2.2. Process model formulation
As presented in previous work (Salazar et al., 2009), the rela-
tions that were used highlight the relationship of mass variation
for each size in the grinding chamber.
dwi X
i1
fi  pi  K i wi  K i  K i1 wi 1
dt i1
where fi (t/h) is the feed ow rate, pi (t/h) is the product ow rate
from the grinding chamber, Ki (h1) denotes the effective parameter
(corresponding to Si in conventional grinding) and wi is the weight
of size i particles in the mill charge (t). This equation constitutes the
basis of the proposed milling model.
The effective parameter, Ki (1/h) is dened as the fraction of
specic power supplied to the mill:
Mp
K i K Ei 2
W
where K Ei is dened as the specic grinding rate constant (grinding
rate respect to energy consumption) (t/kWh), Mp is the power-draw
(kW) and W the internal load mass (t). The power consumed by the
mill (power draw), Mp, was estimated by using the Austins equa-
tion (Austin, 1990). The previously mentioned equation was used
to avoid the complex expressions, such as that developed by
Morrell (2004) were an integration is required over two different
sections of the mill.
   
W 0:1
Mp K p  D2:5  L  1  A  J /c 1  910/ 3
V 2 c
where D (m) and L (m) are the mill dimensions, V (m3) is the mill
effective volume, /c is the mill speed (critical speed fraction), J is
the fraction of the mill volume occupied by pulp and balls (lling
level), and Kp and A are tted parameters. The ratio between the
internal load mass and the mill volume is related to the percentage
of mill capacity by the following equation:
W
1  eb  J  qs  1  wc 0:6  J b  qb  qs 1 wc 4
V
where eb is the porosity of the mill internal load (void fraction), qs
(t/m3) and qb (t/m3) are the density of mineral and balls, respec-
tively, wc is the mill water/mineral mass ratio, and Jb is the ball
weight fraction.
94 J.-L. Salazar et al. / Minerals Engineering 64 (2014) 9296

For the internal classier, the balance is carried out by dening The MPC models have been covered extensively in different
a classication efciency vector, ci, which includes two effects: one documents and therefore will not be covered in detail in this work.
produced by the mills internal grates and the other by the pulp For further information, readers are encouraged to read the work of
evacuation system (Magne et al., 1995). Thus, ci is dened by: Rawlings (2000).
pi The MPC is based on an iterative, nite horizon optimization of
1  ci 5 a specic model. The MPC optimization is performed over a cost
pi
function that considers specic ranges of observation and control
The following expression is then obtained for the dynamic mass (known as prediction horizon and control horizon). Considering
balance of size i particles in the milling chamber as proposed by these ranges and constraints on operational variables, trajectories
Magne et al. (1995). are generated in order to predict a set of future moves on the
  manipulated variables in order to yield an approximation of the
dwi P X
i1
 1  ci  wi  K i  wi  K i  K i1 wi fi 6 predicted outputs as close as possible to a reference trajectory.
dt W i1 Once the trajectory is obtained by the optimization problem, the
rst step is applied and the optimization problem is performed
again. Mathematically, the MPC is represented by the following
2.3. Transporting water through the mill
equation (Eq. (10)), where P and M are the prediction and control
horizons, respectively. Y is the model estimation, while K and C
The following equation represents the variation of the internal
are weights that represent the importance of manipulated and con-
water load, Ww (t), as a result of changes in input and output water
trolled variables.
ow rates, Fw and Pw (t/h), the latter being estimated by Pw = CwWw
(Magne et al., 1995). P h
X i
min ^k 1  yset 2  K  Duk i 12
C  y
dW w DU
Fa  Cw  W w 7 i1
dt Du 0 i M; M 1; . . . P
10
The parameter Cw (h1), water output, has been correlated to DU min 6 Duk i 1 6 DU max
the mass of mineral in the mill, W, according to the following
U min 6 uk 6 U max
relation:
^k i 6 Y max
Y min 6 y
2
C w exp64:61  19561  lnW 1:55  lnW  W a 8
Additionally, the work developed by Salazar et al. (2009) allows
further information to be obtained/specied, especially the grind- 3. Methods
ing media, bearing pressure, and load position. The development
was scheduled and adapted to the operational conditions of the 3.1. Solving the model in Matlab-Simulink
SAG mill of a copper concentrating plant. Table 1 shows some
SAG mill parameters used in that study. The model was implemented as a subsystem Mask in Matlab-
Simulink. Simulink is a programming system that uses blocks
2.4. Multivariable predictive control (graphical programming) for solving differential equations, in addi-
tion to allowing users to program their own blocks across functions
In the present work, a three-input-three-output scheme of con- (S-functions). This, coupled with the possibility of using the spe-
trol was performed. The total water feed to the mill (the feed water cic Matlab toolboxes, forms a powerful platform for the devel-
ow rate was added to the dilution water ow rate, so they could opment of prototypes.
be specied separately, but for the SAG mill model, the total water
content was the variable of interest), the fresh ore feed rate, and
the mill rotation speed were used as manipulated variables. Aus- 3.2. MPC subsystem
tins Energy (Austin, 1990), a particle size reduction percentage
(Eq. (9)), and the nal product ow rate were the controlled The programming sequence and adaptation MPC algorithm was
variables. performed in a Matlab work environment, based on the develop-
ment of a subsystem model being incorporated into the semiautog-
P12
i1 m  X i;a enous grinding process model developed by Salazar et al. (2009,
s P12 9
2010)), and considered the operational limits of the controller,
i1 m  X i;b
described in Table 2.
In this equation (Eq. (9)), s is the particle size reduction percent- Through systematic variations, the tuning parameters that give
age, m is the product mass ow rate, and X is the mass fraction of a a satisfactory answer turned out to be Control Horizon (P) = 20;
particle of size i, before (b) and after (a) milling. The particle size Prediction Horizon (M) = 50; C = [1, 1, 1]; K = [1, 1, 1].
reduction percentage takes into consideration the product mass
ow rate and the particle size distribution (i.e. it can be considered
as a combination of two controlled variables). Table 2
Operational limits of the controller.
Table 1 Minimum Maximum
Operational limits of the SAG mill model.
Manipulated variables
Parameters Value Fresh ore (ton/min) 1.500 2.300
Fresh water (m3/min) 400 800
Internal mill volume, V (m3) 340350
Critical speed, /c (fraction) 0.6 0.8
Mineral density, qb (t/m3) 2.62.8
Ball density, qb (t/m3) 7.77.8 Controlled variables
Water density, qw (kg/m3) 1.000 Power draw, Mp (MWh) 5.900 7.500
Mill diameter, D (ft) 3034 Size reduction (%) 60 80
Mill length, L (ft) 1416 Fill level (J) (fraction) 0.2 0.4
 J.-L. Salazar et al. / Minerals Engineering 64 (2014) 9296 95

4. Results When the direct inuence of the manipulated variables is ana-

Figs. 13 show the resulting model outputs obtained by the
servo analyses manipulating the set points of the different con-
trolled variables. In each of these gures, the left-hand graphs
describe the response of the manipulated variables (fresh ore ow
rate, continuous line; fresh water ow rate, dashed line; and SAG
mill rotation speed, dotted line), while the right-hand graphs
describe the response of the controlled variables (power draw, con-
tinuous line; size reduction, dashed line; SAG mill ll level, dotted
line) on the noisy system (5% noise on the SAG model input) when
the controlled variable is modied. As can be observed, in each of
these gures, the MIMO MPC control scheme was able to reestab-
lish the controlled variables to their respective set points and, at
the same time, the fresh water ow rate was one of the main
manipulated variables. These results show that the water plays a
fundamental role while the RPM plays the least important role in
the generated model. These results are based on the dimensionless
variables used, which had a nominal value of 600 m3/h for the
water ow rate, 2000 ton/h for the ore ow rate, and 0.7 for the
RPM.
lyzed, a proportional relation is observed between the manipulated
variables and the power draw (as the material increases in the mill,
or the speed is increased, the power increases too; Fig. 1); an inver-
sely proportional relationship can be observed between the size
reduction and the input ow rates, since obtaining a higher size
reduction, means that the percentage of grinding media can be
increased by each of the previously described methods. Addition-
ally, the RPM shows a low effect on the grinding percentage, but
it should increase to produce a positive effect on the size reduction,
as described in Fig. 2. Finally, a proportional relation is observed
between the ll level and fresh ore ow rate. The RPM has a low
effect on the controlled variable, but an inverse effect is observed
on the fresh ore ow rate.
Finally, as observed in each gure, the size reduction is the
slowest controlled variable to be recovered after a modication
in the set points, especially when the lling level set point is mod-
ied. It should be highlighted that the manipulated-controlled
behavior is not out of the ordinary, the importance of the previ-
ously described gures is the controller capacity to handle multiple
inputs at the same time, what has so far been a hard task for most

Fig. 1. MPC controlled response in the MIMO conguration with a power draw set point variation.

Fig. 2. MPC controlled response in the MIMO conguration with a size reduction set point variation.
96 J.-L. Salazar et al. / Minerals Engineering 64 (2014) 9296
Fig. 3. MPC controlled response in the MIMO conguration with a ll level set point variation.
of the controlled system (i.e. most of the system are closed loops).
Given that the main objective of the present work was to perform
and describe a MIMO controller for SAG mills, the comparison with
other controllers was not performed since it is outside of the scope
of the present work. Additionally, as observed in the graphs, the
control action was performed by a manipulation on more than
one variable at the same time; therefore comparison with a SISO
system is not relevant.
5. Conclusion
A MIMO MPC control has been designed and implemented in a
SAG model. As shown in the results, the simulator versatility
allowed evaluating broad operational conditions that allows the
controller to keep the controlled variables invariant, independent
of the system deviation from its set point. Nevertheless, despite
the adequate controller behavior, some manipulated variables,
such as the fresh water ow rate, could be inadequate for opera-
tional modications, given the real operational range of the men-
tioned variable and that required by the controller. For industrial
application, the present work promotes an optimization of the
MPC parameters given the operational limitations observed in each
mining industry.
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