Energy Efficiency of Quartz Glass Under Compression at the Mesoscale and Microscale

C Zhang and YT Pan and XJ Cao and T Wang and HD Yu and YJ Zhao, JOM, 77, 8622-8636 (2025).

DOI: 10.1007/s11837-025-07636-0

Compression plays a critical role in the comminution stage of mineral processing. To minimize energy consumption, understanding energy distribution in the mineral compression process at mesoscopic and microscopic scales is vital. This study investigates quartz glass using nanoindentation experiments and molecular dynamics simulations at both scales. The results show that at the microscopic scale, hardness and Young's modulus are 11.01 GPa and 74.41 GPa, respectively, slightly higher than the mesoscopic values of 9.59 GPa and 70.76 GPa. However, the specific surface energy at the microscopic scale is 49.77 times greater. The presence of pre-cracks helps retain sub-nanometer pores during nanoindentation. Consequently, quartz glass at the mesoscopic scale consumes more elastic energy and less plastic energy than at the microscopic scale. Energy efficiency in compression is very low at both scales: 0.00419% (mesoscopic) and - 1.043% to - 7.305% (microscopic). These findings indicate that compressive loading during comminution primarily causes material damage rather than performing useful work. The results provide theoretical insights for improving comminution energy efficiency.

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