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Lubricants
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Tribology in Ball Milling: Theory and Applications
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Tribology in Ball Milling: Theory and Applications

A special issue of Lubricants (ISSN 2075-4442).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2025 | Viewed by 1901

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Zixin Yin

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Mechanical and Electronic Engineering, Suzhou University, Suzhou 234000, China
Interests: friction; wear; discrete element method; mining machinery
Dr. Tongqing Li

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Mechanical Engineering, Jiangsu Ocean University, Lianyungang 222005, China
Interests: friction; wear; discrete element method; mining machinery

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Friction consumes one-third of the world's primary energy, and about 60% of machine parts fail due to wear, while more than 50% of mechanical equipment accidents originate from lubrication failure and excessive wear. Ball mills are key equipment for grinding materials in the cement, mining, and chemical industries. They are also the equipment with the largest power consumption in these industries, accounting for 30% to 70% of a mining plant’s total power consumption. Ball mills, with their characteristics of nonlinearity, large hysteresis, and strong coupling, mainly rely on liners lifting grinding balls to achieve material impact and grinding. During the milling process, the interaction between the grinding balls, the liners, and the slurry involves multi-body friction and wear behaviors, with the impact, friction, and compression between the cylinder, the slurry, the grinding balls, and the liners resulting in the last two suffering the greatest wear. Analyzing the tribological behavior of ball mills and the related mining machinery can help with the structural design, service life improvement, and energy consumption reduction in such equipment.

Tribology research is an important field for the development of the national economy. This Special Issue on "Tribology in Ball Milling: Theory and Applications" aims to provide a platform for researchers to exchange and learn about the tribological behavior of ball mills and related mining machinery.

Dr. Zixin Yin
Dr. Tongqing Li
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Lubricants is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • tribology
  • wear
  • ball mill
  • milling
  • liner
  • friction
  • load behavior
  • discrete element method

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 4428 KB  
Article
Toward Coarse and Fine Bimodal Structures for Improving the Plasma Resistance of Al2O3
by Jeong Hyeon Kwon, I Putu Widiantara, Siti Fatimah, Warda Bahanan, Jee-Hyun Kang and Young Gun Ko
Lubricants 2025, 13(9), 374; https://doi.org/10.3390/lubricants13090374 - 22 Aug 2025
Viewed by 659
Abstract
In the quest to produce high-purity alumina, bottom-up engineering via architecting the interior of ceramic with bimodal structures of alumina powders in the absence of any additives has gained considerable attention owing to the simplicity offered. The present work investigated the influence of [...] Read more.
In the quest to produce high-purity alumina, bottom-up engineering via architecting the interior of ceramic with bimodal structures of alumina powders in the absence of any additives has gained considerable attention owing to the simplicity offered. The present work investigated the influence of bimodal structures containing micron (~35 μm) and submicron (~600 nm) Al2O3 powders on the formation of dense Al2O3 ceramic. To this end, ball-milling was conducted to prepare the desired sizes of powders, followed by two-step sintering in a vacuum at 1450 °C and 1650 °C with 6 h and 4 h holding times, consecutively. The bimodal structures induced the formation of Al2O3 ceramic with nearly full densification (>99%; ρ 3.95 g/cm3). Both the coarse and fine-grained moieties synergistically balanced the densification kinetics whilst suppressing abnormal grain growth. The uniform and homogeneous grain size minimized the plasma porosity down to <6.0%, limiting the penetration of plasma during the etching process. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Tribology in Ball Milling: Theory and Applications)
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18 pages, 4335 KB  
Article
DEM Study on the Impact of Liner Lifter Bars on SAG Mill Collision Energy
by Yong Wang, Qingfei Xiao, Saizhen Jin, Mengtao Wang, Ruitao Liu and Guobin Wang
Lubricants 2025, 13(8), 321; https://doi.org/10.3390/lubricants13080321 - 23 Jul 2025
Viewed by 733
Abstract
The semi-autogenous grinding (SAG) mill, renowned for its high efficiency, high production capacity, and low cost, is widely used for crushing and grinding equipment. However, the current understanding of the overall particle behavior influencing its efficiency remains relatively limited, particularly the impact of [...] Read more.
The semi-autogenous grinding (SAG) mill, renowned for its high efficiency, high production capacity, and low cost, is widely used for crushing and grinding equipment. However, the current understanding of the overall particle behavior influencing its efficiency remains relatively limited, particularly the impact of the shape of SAG mill liners on material behavior. This study employs discrete element method (DEM) simulation technology to investigate the effects of different liner structures on particle trajectories and collision energy, systematically investigating the impact of lifter bars angle, height, and the number of lifter bars on grinding efficiency. The results of single-factor simulations indicate that when the lifter bars height (230 mm) and the number of lifter bars (36) are fixed, the total collision energy dissipation between steel balls and ore, as well as among ore particles, reaches a maximum of 526,069.53 J when the lifter bars angle is 25°. When the lifter bar angle is fixed at 25° and the number of lifter bars is set to 36, the maximum collision energy dissipation of 627,606.06 J occurs at a lifter bars height of 210 mm. When the angle (25°) and height (210 mm) are fixed, the highest energy dissipation of 443,915.37 J is observed with 12 lifter bars. Results from the three-factor, three-level orthogonal experiment reveal that the number of lifter bars exerts the most significant influence on grinding efficiency, followed by the angle and height. The optimal combination is determined to be a 20° angle, 12 lifter bars, and a 210 mm height, resulting in the highest total collision energy dissipation of 700,334 J. This represents an increase of 379,466 J compared to the original SAG mill liner configuration (320,868 J). This research aims to accurately simulate the motion of discrete particles within the mill through DEM simulations, providing a basis for optimizing the operational parameters and structural design of SAG mills. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Tribology in Ball Milling: Theory and Applications)
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