A CONTINUOUS DAMAGE APPROACH TO RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SIZE REDUCTION AND ENERGY CONSUMPTION DURING ORE COMMINUTION

Based upon the aspect of continuous damaging,the process of ore comminution may be des- cribed as the growth and propagation of the microcracks in the ore grains under external load- ing,and a theoretical expression has been developed on the relationship between the grain size distribution and the total energy consumption during entire ore comminution process.The en- ergy consumed totally may be considered consisting of two portions,i.e.with fresh crack sur- faces growth and with crack propagation.The proposed expression seems to be an advance over previous conventional ones,especially that from the viewpoint of energy distribution.