Effect of different milling media for surface coating on the copper powder using two kinds of ball mills with discrete element method simulation

Abstract

This study investigated the effect of three different ball materials on the metal-based carbon nanotube (CNT) composites used as surface coatings on metal-powder to fabricate high-quality nanocomposites. The effect of ball material, different rotation speeds, and milling times on the coating characteristics of the metal-based nanocomposite were studied. The mechanical dry coating was used to fabricate CNT coatings on the surface of copper powder particles via two different ball milling machines such as a traditional ball mill and a stirred ball mill. We explored the effect of the milling media of the ball mill under different ball materials and ball sizes on the metal powder during the ball milling process with DEM simulation. Using discrete element method simulation to obtain the average velocity, force, and, kinetic energy of the milling media in a low and high energy ball mills.