Hiroshi Mio

Poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) was ground in air with CaO in the presence of quartz powder as a grinding aid by a small-scale planetary ball mill to investigate the relation of the dechlorination rate of PVC with the impact energy of the balls calculated from a computer simulation based on the Discrete Element Method under various conditions. Mechanochemical dechlorination proceeds as the grinding progresses and is improved with an increase in both the mill speed and the amount of balls introduced into the mill. The same trend can be seen in the relation between the specific normal impact energy of the balls and the rotational speed. The relationship between the observed dechlorination rate and the computed normal impact energy of the balls is linear, with a correlation coefficient of 0.965. This relationship can be used to estimate the dechlorination rate of PVC in a large-scale planetary ball mill.

Dry grinding of gibbsite is conducted using tumbling ball mills with different diameters from 7.8 to 19.9 cm in order to investigate the effect of mill diameter on the size reduction rate of the sample, in correlation with the ball impact energy simulated on the basis of the Particle Element Method. The size reduction rate increases with an increase in the rotational speed of the mill. Subsequently, it rapidly falls over about 90% of the critical rotational speed. The size reduction rate reaches a maximum value at about 90% of the critical rotational speed, and the maximum value becomes large as the mill diameter increases. The same trend is seen in the relation between the specific impact energy of balls and the rotational speed of the mill, and the size reduction rate is proportional to the specific impact energy regardless of the mill scale. Therefore, the size reduction rate of gibbsite in tumbling ball mills scaled-up can be fairly estimated by simulating the specific impact energy of balls.