IsaMill is a stirred type mill used in mineral industry for fine and ultra-fine grinding. The difficulty in obtaining the internal flow information in the mill by experimental techniques has prevented the development of the fundamental understanding of the flow and generating general methods for reliable scale-up and optimized design and control parameters. This difficulty can be effectively overcome by numerical simulation based on discrete element method (DEM). In this work a DEM model was developed to study particle flow in a simplified IsaMill. The DEM model was validated by comparing the simulated results of the flow pattern, mixing pattern and power draw with those measured from a same scale lab mill. Spatial distributions of microdynamic variables related to flow and force structure such as local porosity, particle interaction forces, collision velocity and collision frequency have been analyzed. Among the materials properties of particles, it is shown that by decreasing particle/particle sliding friction coefficient, the particle flow becomes more vigorous which is useful to grinding performance. Restitution coefficient does not affect the particle flow significantly. A too low or too high particle density could decrease grinding efficiency. Although grinding medium size affects the flow, its selection may depend on the particle size of the products. Among the operational variables considered, the results show that fill volume and mill speed proved to be important factors in IsaMil process. Increase of fill volume or mill speed increases the interaction between particles and agitating discs which results in a more vigorous motion of the particles. Among the mill properties, particle/stirrer sliding friction plays a major role in energy transfer from stirrer to particles. Although there exists a minimum collision energy as particle/stirrer sliding friction increases, large particle/stirrer sliding friction may improve grinding performance as it has both large collision frequency and collision energy. However, that improvement is only up to a critical particle/disc sliding friction beyond which only input energy increases with little improvement on collision frequency and collision energy. Reducing the distance between stirrers or increasing the size of disc holes improves high energy transfer from discs to particles, leading to high collision frequency and collision energy. Among the different stirrer types, the energy transfer is more effective when disc holes are present. Pin stirrer shows increased collision energy and collision frequency which also result in a high power draw. Using the DEM results, a wear model has been developed to predict the wear pattern of the discs. This model can be used to predict the evolution of the disc wear with the time. It is shown that energy transfer from discs to particles are increased when discs are worn out. An attempt has also been made to analyze the microdynamic properties of the mill for different sizes. It is shown that specific power consumption and impact energy are correlated regardless of the mill size and mill speed.

IsaMill is a stirred type mill used in mineral industry for fine and ultra-fine grinding. The difficulty in obtaining the internal flow information in the mill by experimental techniques has prevented the development of the fundamental understanding of the flow and generating general methods for reliable scale-up and optimized design and control parameters. This difficulty can be effectively overcome by numerical simulation based on discrete element method (DEM). In this work a DEM model was developed to study particle flow in a simplified IsaMill. The DEM model was validated by comparing the simulated results of the flow pattern, mixing pattern and power draw with those measured from a same scale lab mill. Spatial distributions of microdynamic variables related to flow and force structure such as local porosity, particle interaction forces, collision velocity and collision frequency have been analyzed. Among the materials properties of particles, it is shown that by decreasing particle/particle sliding friction coefficient, the particle flow becomes more vigorous which is useful to grinding performance. Restitution coefficient does not affect the particle flow significantly. A too low or too high particle density could decrease grinding efficiency. Although grinding medium size affects the flow, its selection may depend on the particle size of the products. Among the operational variables considered, the results show that fill volume and mill speed proved to be important factors in IsaMil process. Increase of fill volume or mill speed increases the interaction between particles and agitating discs which results in a more vigorous motion of the particles. Among the mill properties, particle/stirrer sliding friction plays a major role in energy transfer from stirrer to particles. Although there exists a minimum collision energy as particle/stirrer sliding friction increases, large particle/stirrer sliding friction may improve grinding performance as it has both large collision frequency and collision energy. However, that improvement is only up to a critical particle/disc sliding friction beyond which only input energy increases with little improvement on collision frequency and collision energy. Reducing the distance between stirrers or increasing the size of disc holes improves high energy transfer from discs to particles, leading to high collision frequency and collision energy. Among the different stirrer types, the energy transfer is more effective when disc holes are present. Pin stirrer shows increased collision energy and collision frequency which also result in a high power draw. Using the DEM results, a wear model has been developed to predict the wear pattern of the discs. This model can be used to predict the evolution of the disc wear with the time. It is shown that energy transfer from discs to particles are increased when discs are worn out. An attempt has also been made to analyze the microdynamic properties of the mill for different sizes. It is shown that specific power consumption and impact energy are correlated regardless of the mill size and mill speed.

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Abstract Wood powders are used in numerous applications such as thermoplastics and filters, and a lot of research effort has been put into developing novel ways of utilising them. The mechanical processing of wood powders, especially at particle sizes below 100 µm, has been reported in several studies, but they lack information on the effect of fine grinding conditions on the particle morphology and cellulose crystallinity, both of which are important parameters in the further processing of wood powders and in their various applications. This makes it very difficult to design and optimise fine grinding processes with different applications in mind. The aim of this thesis was to study the dry fine grinding of wood in several impact-based fine grinding mills in order to find out their effect on the properties of the wood and to study the energy required for the mechanical processing of the resulting powders. The effect of the main operational parameters on the properties of dried Norway spruce wood and the energy consumption was studied using three impact-based fine grinding mills that were capable of pulverising the wood down to a median particle size of less than 25 µm. It was found that the impact events occurring in media mills can be used for the production of very fine wood powders with lower cellulose crystallinity and rounder shaped particles having more uniform shape distribution than powders pulverised to a similar size range by means of impact events in non-media mills. A practical estimate was obtained for the minimum specific energy consumption in fine grinding in mills involving grinding media that could be utilised as a target for optimisation. Impact-based media milling under cryogenic conditions can be used to obtain different Norway spruce wood powders from those produced under ambient grinding conditions, i.e. without the freezing effect of nitrogen liquid. The energy efficiency of fine grinding can be enhanced by choosing cryogenic rather than ambient conditions. The moisture content of the wood has greater influence on the size and shape of the particles when milling is accomplished under ambient conditions. Torrefaction can reduce the energy consumption in impact-based media mills for median particle sizes over 17.4 µm (± 0.2 µm), while the shape and cellulose crystallinity of the particles are not significantly affected by torrefaction pretreatment as a function of energy consumption. / Tiivistelmä Puujauheita käytetään laajalti erilaisissa sovelluksissa, kuten esimerkiksi biokomposiiteissa ja suodattimissa. Tämän lisäksi on olemassa paljon tutkimustietoa siitä, kuinka puujauheita voitaisiin hyödyntää laajemminkin. Puu voidaan mekaanisesti prosessoida alle 100 µm:n kokoluokkaan, mutta yksityiskohtaista tietoa kuivahienojauhatuksen olosuhteiden vaikutuksesta jauheiden morfologiaan ja selluloosan kiteisyyteen ei ole saatavilla. Puujauheen morfologialla ja selluloosan kiteisyydellä on kuitenkin merkittävä vaikutus sovelluksia ja jatkojalostusta ajatellen. Puun kuivahienojauhatuksen tiedon puute hankaloittaa merkittävästi prosessin suunnittelua ja optimointia erilaisia sovelluksia varten. Tämän väitöskirjan tavoitteena on selvittää iskuihin perustuvien hienojauhimien vaikutukset puun ominaisuuksiin ja tutkia mekaanisen prosessoinnin energiatehokkuutta hienojauhatuksessa. Tutkimuksessa selvitettiin kolmen erilaisen iskuun perustuvan hienojauhatusmyllyn pääasiallisten operointiparametrien vaikutusta kuivatun metsäkuusen ominaisuuksiin ja energiankulutukseen. Jokaisella hienojauhimella onnistuttiin tuottamaan puujauhoja, joiden mediaanikoko oli alle 25 µm. Iskuihin perustuvalla jauhinkappalemyllyllä saatiin tuotettua puujauhoa, jonka selluloosan kiteisyys on alhaisempi ja partikkelimuodot pyöreämpiä verrattuna samankokoisiin puujauhoihin, jotka on tuotettu iskuihin perustuvilla jauhinkappaleettomilla hienojauhatusmyllyillä. Työssä saatiin käytännöllinen arvio kuivatun metsäkuusen hienojauhatuksen minimienergiankulutukselle iskuihin perustuville jauhinkappalemyllyille, mitä voidaan käyttää kyseisten myllytyyppien optimoinnin tavoitteena. Työssä havaittiin lisäksi, että kryogeenisiä jauhatusolosuhteita käyttämällä voidaan tuottaa erilaisia puujauhoja verrattuna puujauhoihin, jotka prosessoidaan ilman nestetyppijäädytystä, kun jauhatus suoritetaan iskuihin perustuvalla jauhinkappalemyllyllä. Ilman nestetyppijäädytystä puun kosteuspitoisuudella on merkittävämpi vaikutus puujauhojen ominaisuuksiin kuin kryogeenisissä olosuhteissa jauhetuilla. Kryogeenisillä jauhatusolosuhteilla voidaan parantaa myös jauhatuksen energiatehokkuutta. Torrefioinnilla voidaan vähentää hienojauhatuksen energiankulutusta iskuihin perustuvilla jauhinkappalemyllyillä, kun tavoitekoon mediaani on yli 17,4 µm (± 0,2 µm). Torrefioinnilla ei ole vaikutusta selluloosan kiteisyyteen tai partikkeleiden muotoon energiankulutuksen funktiona.