Suspension rheology during wet comminution in planetary ball mill

Obtaining and controlling desirable system behavior in terms of rheology is important issue in many engineering problems. This study monitors rheological behavior of dolomite suspensions produced by wet comminution in planetary ball mill. Dolomite has a number of uses, in agriculture, steel making, glass making, ceramic industry, pharmaceutical industry, etc. Therefore, it is very interesting for investigation. Rheological behavior of attained suspensions was characterized as strongly pseudoplastic whereas the pseudoplasticity degree was connected to particle size distribution. Rheological properties of the product become equal after the effective comminution time regardless of primary particle properties before comminution. Therefore, the comminution in a highly energetic mill such as planetary ball mill, within short time interval will induce development of systems with the same granulometric and consequently the same theological properties regardless of the primary system properties before the comminution. (C) 2007 The Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.