Effects of grinding aid dosage on circuit performance and cement fineness: Fid-Bau Portal

Effects of grinding aid dosage on circuit performance and cement fineness

Toprak, Nurettin Alper / Benzer, Ahmet Hakan / Karahan, Cumhur Erdem / Zencirci, Ergin Sarp

Highlights • Industrial tests were performed with an amine-based commercial grinding aid at three different dosage rates. • Influences of the dosage rates on grinding and classification performance were investigated. • The residence time of the cement particles inside the mill was decreased with the increasing dosage. • Finer cement was able to be produced at the same specific energy consumption.

Abstract Although many studies have been conducted to date to investigate the effects of grinding aids (GAs), none of them specifically examined the effect of GAs on transportation rate of material inside the ball mill. In this study, the effects of GA on transportation rate of the ground material inside the cement ball mill and the effects of this change on the whole grinding circuit were investigated. In this context, industrial tests were carried out with three different dosages of an amine-based commercial GA in a closed-circuit cement ball mill. During the tests, the throughput of the circuit and all operating parameters of the mill and air classifier were kept constant. Thus, in dependent of all other variables, the effects of GA on the overall circuit, ball mill and air classifier were able to be examined. When GA was added to the circuit, the residence time of the material inside the mill decreased and the mill product became coarser. In fact, though the coarser ground powder was fed to the classifier, the cut size of the classifier decreased and, as a result, final product became finer with increasing the GA dosage. The results of this study based on industrial data will provide a better understanding of the mechanism of action of GAs in grinding circuits and pave the way for more efficiently use of GAs in industrial applications.