Hybrid Intelligent Modeling Approach for the Ball Mill Grinding Process

Ming Tie1, Jing Bi2, and Yushun Fan1

1

National CIMS Engineering Research Center, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China tming7611@sina.com 2 Software College, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110004, China bijing39@sina.com

Abstract. Modeling for the ball mill grinding process is still an imperative but difficult problem for the optimal control of mineral processing industry. Due to the integrated complexities of grinding process (strong nonlinearity, unknown mechanisms, multivariable, time varying parameters, etc.), a hybrid intelligent dynamic model is presented in this paper, which includes a phenomenological ball mill grinding model with a neurofuzzy network to describe the selection function of different operating conditions, a populace balance based sump model, a phenomenological hydrocyclone model with some reasoning rules for its parameters correction and a radius basis function network (RBFN) for fine particle size error compensation. With the production data from a ball mill grinding circuit of an iron concentration plant, the experiments and simulation results show the proposed hybrid intelligent modeling approach effective.

1 Introduction
As the most important and most energy-intensive production process in mineral processing industry, the ball mill grinding process is to reduce the size of the mineral to facilitate its concentration in the next stage. To improve the economic recovery of the valuable minerals as well as energy efficiency, an appropriate model is highly desirable for optimum operation [1]. There have been various attempts to develop equations or associations for grinding process, such as the ball mill models [2] [3] based on the dynamic population balance concept, the perfect mixing assumption with the grinding theory, and the hydrocyclone models [4] based on the classification theory or experiences. Nonetheless, the above physically-based models can not give accurate descriptions of the grinding process because of the overlooked variation of the selection function in different operation conditions and the low precision of those hydrocyclone models. Due to the complex and poorly understood underlying mechanisms, modeling grinding process with data-driven techniques draws more attention. But modeling the whole grinding process in black-box structure [5] is often unappreciative in industrial application, as the model is not embedded with physical knowledge and not adapted to different operating conditions.
D. Liu et al. (Eds.): ISNN 2007, Part I, LNCS 4491, pp. 609617, 2007. Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007

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The present work proposes a hybrid intelligent model for grinding process with the combination of the phenomenological models, the knowledge from experiences and the intelligent modeling techniques. The presented paper is organized as follows. A brief description of the grinding circuit with grinding process is given in Section 2. Then in Section 3, the dynamic hybrid intelligent model for the grinding process is developed detailedly on the sequence of the modeling strategy, the phenomenological models, the radius basis function network (RBFN) for error compensation and parameters reasoning rules, the neurofuzzy network for selection function.

2 Description of the Ball Mill Grinding Process

The ball mill grinding process we studied is shown in Fig.1, and its operation is as follows. The fresh ore feed into a ball mill for grinding with the water fed to control the mill slurry concentration. Then the discharge slurry from the mill pours into a sump. The pump takes out the slurry to feed a hydrocyclone with the sump water fed to control the concentration of the cyclone feed slurry. Through the classification of the hydro-cyclone, the overflow fine slurry is the product, and the recycle coarse slurry return to the ball mill.
M O1 M O 3 , QO , C O
Product Hydrocyclone Feed Slurry Hydrocyclone Recycle

M H1

M H 3 , QH , C H

M R1

M R 3 , QR , C R M F3, J , u2

Fresh Ore Feed u1 , M F 1 Mill Water Feed

Ball Mill

Discharge Slurry

Sump Water

u4 Sump
Pump

u3

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the ball mill grinding process

As shown in fig. 1, the outputs of the grinding process are QO, CO and MO1MO3, which represent the overflow flow rate, concentration and particle size (solid particle size distribution) respectively. The inputs are u1u4, which represent the fresh ore feed rate, the mill water feed rate, the pump rate, the sump water feed rate, respectively. The boundary conditions are J, MF1MF3, , which represent the fresh ore rigidity, the particle size and the density respectively. The definition of particle size fraction is as table1.
Table 1. The particle size fraction definition

Particle size fraction Particle diameter fraction (micron)

M1 150~300

M2 75~150

M3 35~75

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QH, CH and MH1MH3 are the hydrocyclone slurry feed rate, concentration and particle size respectively. QR, CR and MR1MR3 are hydrocyclone slurry recycle rate, concentration and particle size respectively.

3 The Hybrid Intelligent Model for the Ball Mill Grinding Process
The hybrid intelligent modeling strategy for the ball mill grinding process To achieve higher precision than those of the phenomenological models [2-4] and the neural networks [5], the hybrid intelligent modeling strategy for grinding process is presented as shown in fig. 2. The ultimate result is the sum of the outputs of the phenomenological model and the compensation RBFN. 1 represents the selection function whose real value can be achieved from assay of the sump slurry. Due to the quick response time of classification [6], both the hydrocyclone phenomenological model and its compensation RBFN are static one. 1 varies with different operating conditions and it can not be described with accurate mathematical models, thus a neurofuzzy model is developed for its capability of combination with phenomenological models.
the Hybrid Intelligent Model for Grinding Process
QR ,CR , MR1, MR2 , MR3

Recycle Model Parameters Reasoning Rules Phenomenological Model for Hydrocyclone

QO , CO

Dynamic Phenomenological Model for Ball Mill

Dynamic Particle Size Phenomenological Compensation QH , CH , M H1 , MH 2 , MH 3 RBFN Model forSump

Neurofuzzy Networks for Selection Function CH ,VM

u3 ,u4 u1 ,u2 , J, MF1, MF2 , MF3

Ball Mill Grinding Process

Fig. 2. The hybrid intelligent modeling strategy diagram for the ball mill grinding process

The phenomenological models for the ball mill grinding process The phenomenological models include the dynamic ball mill model, the dynamic sump model, the recycle model and the static hydrocyclone model.

MO1, MO2 , MO3

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Due to the classification models [2] [4], the hydrocyclone model is described as QO = QHCH (1 MH1E1 MH2E2 MH3E3) 1QH (1 CH) 2, (1) (2) (3)

QO CO = QH C H QH C H ( M H 1 E1 + M H 2 E 2 + M H 3 E3 ) ,

QOCO MO,i = QH CH M H ,i (1 Ei ),
Ei = 1 exp[0.693(

(i = 1,2,3) ,

di a5 Q QOCO d ) ] + (a3 + a4 O ) exp[0.693( i )a5 ] , d50 QH QH CH d50

log( d 50 ) = a6 + a7C H QH + a8QH ,

where d50 is the cut size, d i is the average size, Ei is the separation efficiency, 18 are the coefficients. The inputs of the hydrocyclone model, its slurry feed rate, concentration, particle size are the same with u3 and the outputs of sump model. And the sump dynamic model can be described as the following populace balance equations,

VS = QD + u4 u3 ,
dVS C S = QDC D u3C H , dt
dVS CS M S ,i dt = QDCD M D ,i u3CH M H ,i , (i = 1, 2,3) ,

where VS, CS and MS,i are the sump slurry volume, concentration and particle size respectively, QD, CD and MD,i are the mill slurry discharge rate, concentration and particle size of the ball mill respectively. The sump can behave as a perfect fixer with slurry suspended [2], thus Eq.(9) and Eq.(10) can be derived

CH =

1 (QD C D u 4 C H Q D C H ) , VS
(i = 1, 2,3) .

M H ,i =

QD CD ( M D ,i M H ,i ), VS CH

As parts of the inputs of the sump model, QD, CD and MD,i can be achieved from the dynamic ball mill model.

(4)

(5)

(6)

(7)

(8)

(9)

(10)

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Based on the grinding theory, the populace equations and the mixer concept [3] [7] [8], together with our analysis of the dynamics of this ball mill grinding process, the ball mill model can be derived as

VM =

u1

+ u2 + QR QD ,

(11)

CD =

1 (u1 + QR C R QR C D u 2C D u1C D ) , VM

(12)

M D1 =

QR C R + u1 QR C R M R1 + u1 M F 1 ( M D1 ) 1 M D1 , VM C D QR + u1 + u 2

(13)

M D2 =

QR C R + u1 QR C R M R 2 + u1 M F 2 ( M D 2 ) 11 M D 2 + b1 M D1 , VM C D QR + u1 + u 2
MD1+MD2+MD3=1,

(14)

(15)

where VM represents the volume of the slurry in the mill, 1 is a constant coefficient, b represents the breakage function. For a given type of ore, b can be described by [1]

b = ( 2 + 3CD )(

d 3 4 d ) + (1 2 3CD )( 3 )5 , d2 d2

(16)

where 25 are constant coefficients. As a 1-order model [9], QD can be described as

TQ QD =

u1

+ u 2 + QR QD ,

(17)

where TQ can be simplified as a time constant. QR, CR and MR1MR3 can be derived from the recycle model, which is described as QR = QH QO, (18) (19) (20)

QR CR MR ,i = QH CH MH ,i QO CO MO ,i.

The particle size compensation RBFN and the parameters reasoning system for the hydrocyclone phenomenological model In the hydrocyclone phenomenological model Eq.(1)~Eq.(5), the parameters 1 and 2 vary with QH and cyclone structure parameters; 3 and 4 vary with QH, CH and

QR CR = QH CH

QO CO,

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cyclone structure parameters; 5 varies with fresh ore property; 68 vary with QH, CH, MH,i and cyclone structure parameters. To optimal operations, the ore type and structure parameters are constant, thus the parameters reasoning rules are described with the expert experiences as Rule i:

then [18]=[0.67,-0.0044,1.2,0.0025,-0.45,2.3,0.9,0.75]. As the classification theory is too complex and the expert experiences are not accurate enough, the above reasoning rules can not satisfy the precision demand, especially for the particle size MO,i. Therefore, the RBFN for error compensation of the fine particle size computation is presented due to the advantages of RBFN [11]. According to the classification theory and the analysis by experts [6] [10], the fine particle size error MO3 can decided mainly by QH, CH , QO and MH,i. Thus the error compensation RBFN can be described as

M O3 = w0 + w j exp[
j =1

1 (2 j )2

( X c j )T ( X c j )],
T

X = [QH , CH , M H 1 , M H 2 , QO ] ,
where n is the num of nodes of hidden layer, j is the distance of centers, cj is called RBF center, wj is the tap weight, w0 is the threshold. The centers of hidden layer are determined by fuzzy c-means clustering approach [12], and wj can be identified with the least square recursive method. The neurofuzzy network for selection function Due to the analysis of relationship between the selection function and the net mill power [3] [13], 1 can be described as

log1 = k1 log P k 2 log(C DVM ) + logJ + k3 ,

where P represents the net mill power draft, k1k3 are parameters. According to the experience equations for the net mill power draft [14] [15], P can be described by

P = f1 (CD ,VM , ,VB , B , L, D) ,

where VB represents the ball volume in mill, B is the ball density, L and D are the length and the width of the mill respectively, f1 is an unknown nonlinear function. , B , L, D can be considered as constants in this equation, and VB can be described as

dVB = k 4VB k5 (VB ) 0.66 + k6 , dt

where k4k6 are parameters related to physics properties of the slurry.

If QH

[265, 300] and CH [30%, 40%] and MH1

[45%, 70%],

(21)

(22)

(23)

(24)

(25)

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According to the Eq.(23) and Eq.(24) together with grinding energy draft theory, the inputs and the output of the neurofuzzy network model can be determined as X=[x1, x2, x3]T=[log(VB), log(CD) , log(VM)]T, y=log( 1) . (26)

Based on experiences and grinding theory, we determined 2 fuzzy sets for x1, 4 fuzzy sets for x2 and 3 fuzzy sets for x3. The neurofuzzy network has a 5-layed structure, which is described as follows. Layer 1, compute the matching degree to a fuzzy condition with Gauss-shaped node function. Layer 2, compute the firing strength of each rule as the minimum value of its inputs. Layer 3, compute the normalized matching degree for each rule as

vi = i

j =1

24

where i is an output of the layer 2. Layer 4, compute the conclusion inferred by each fuzzy rule

zi = vi (i ,0 + i ,1 x1 + i , 2 x2 + i ,3 x3 ) (i=1,2, 24).

Layer 5, combine the conclusions of all fuzzy rules and obtain the network output. The fuzzy c-means clustering approach [12] is applied to identify the clustering centroids of the network. The parameters of the network are achieved with a hybrid learning algorithm [16] which combines a recursive SVD-based least square method and the gradient descent method.

4 Results and Discussions

The data used for experiments comes from the ball mill grinding process of an iron concentration plant. The ball mill is 3.5 meter in length, 3.2 meter in diameter, and its percent critical velocity is 0.45. 450 groups of data are used for hybrid intelligent modeling of the grinding process, and the following results are achieved. The parameters 15 are 0.57, 0.1, 0.25, 0.12, 1.1 respectively, and k4k6 are 0.0014, 0.00065, 0.002 respectively. There are 5 rules in the parameter reasoning system of the hydrocyclone model. The error compensation RBFN has 13 hidden layer nodes while the neurofuzzy network for selection function has 24 fuzzy rules. Another 70 groups of data, which is sampled with the variation of fresh ore feed and water feed, are used for the simulation with the proposed hybrid intelligent model. In Fig. 3, the contrast curves between the outputs of the proposed hybrid intelligent model and the real value are presented. From the contrast curves shown in Fig. 3, its easy to see that the simulation result of the proposed model gives a correct dynamic characteristic description of the real outputs of the ball mill grinding process.

(i=1,2, 24),

(27)

(28)

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Fig. 3. Contrast curves of the real value with simulation results from the proposed model (a) overflow concentration simulation; (b) overflow fine particle size simulation

5 Conclusions
This work proposes a hybrid intelligent model to solve the difficult problem of modeling grinding process accurately. Due to the integrated complexities in grinding process, the presented model combines the phenomenological models, expert experiences, the NN technique and the fuzzy logic. The simulation and experiments show its high precision and adaptation for different operating conditions. The proposed hybrid intelligent modeling approach is important not only for the dynamics research and the optimization research of grinding process, but also for grinding simulation system construction.

Acknowledgements
This work is supported by National Basic Research Development Program of China (2006CB705400) and National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (2004AA412030).

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