Fracture Characteristics of Ore Components Interface Based on Representative Volume Unit Model

The fracture characteristic of mineral component interface refers to the stress, strain and other processes generated by the bonding interface under the action of external load. It is of great significance for studying the dissociation of component minerals and improving the efficiency of ore crushing. To further study the characteristics of mineral accumulation and non-uniform distribution of useful minerals in the ore, the internal rock facies analysis and the mineral interface in-situ loading experiments were carried out. Based on these two experiments, the non-linear, multi-scale modeling platform DIGIMAT was employed to construct the coincident group. The representative volume element (RVE) model of the mineral microstructure is divided, and the in-situ crushing simulation of the ore RVE model is carried out through the DIGIMAT-ABAQUS coupling. It is suggested by these results that: (1) The useful minerals in the studied wolframite ore are distributed in granular form inside the ore, mainly in the quartz mineral and the bonding interface with the siliceous rock mineral. (2) The mechanical properties of the bonding interface with different components are related to the physical properties and morphological characteristics of the constituent minerals. The minimum fracture stress range of the quartz-siliceous rock interface is 1.1785–1.4820 GPa, and the minimum fracture stress range of the quartz-tungsten interface is 1.3355–1.5420 GPa; (3) Although the peak stress of ore crushing has no obvious effect when the loading rate is 0.010 or 0.005 kN/s, it has a greater impact on the internal deformation of the ore. When the loading rate is 0.010 kN/s, the stress suddenly decreased and constantly fluctuated during the strengthening stage. (4) The damage caused by in-situ loading mainly occurs at the boundary of the loading area. The fracture mechanical characteristics of quartz minerals in the two sets of interfaces are greater than that of tungsten minerals and siliceous rock minerals. Quartz minerals in the interface composition minerals are preferentially formed and destroyed.