As important equipment in the ore grinding and crushing stage,the ball mill plays a decisive role in improving efficiency and reducing consumption of the concentrator.Ball mill power consumption and energy consumption distribution,the design optimization of technical parameters and liner structural parameter are important content and technical difficulties that affect the grinding effect of ball mills.Discrete element modeling can accurately simulate the deformation process of particle motion and record the power and energy distribution of particles,so that in the field of ball mill simulation,it has good application prospects.The paper introduces the characteristics of the widely used particle model,contact model,and joint simulation method of the discrete element modeling in the ball mill simulation process and their research progress,as well as  the application of ball mill power and energy distribution research,technical parameter optimization,liner structural parameter optimization,summarizes and points out that the refinement of the ball mill simulation model,the wide application of joint simulation,and the intelligent adjustment of ball mill technical parameters are the future ball mill simulation research development trend.