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Minerals Engineering
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/mineng
Centre for Minerals Research, Dept. of Chemical Engineering, University of Cape Town, 7701, Rondebosch, Cape Town, South Africa
Centre for Research in Computational and Applied Mechanics, University of Cape Town, 7701, Rondebosch, Cape Town, South Africa
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history:
Received 5 December 2008
Accepted 21 March 2009
Available online 25 April 2009
Keywords:
Modelling
Computational uid dynamics
Froth otation
Fine particle processing
Agitation
a b s t r a c t
Certain mineral slurries used in the minerals processing industry have been shown to exhibit non-Newtonian rheologies, particularly with ner particle sizes and at higher solid concentrations. Research has
also shown that a cavern containing yielded uid surrounded by stagnant uid form around the impeller
during the agitation of non-Newtonian uids exhibiting yield stresses, and this is therefore hypothesised
to occur inside mechanical otation cells which may adversely affect uid hydrodynamics. A single phase
non-Newtonian uids was modelled using CFD, using the HerschelBulkley non-Newtonian model with
constants derived from experimentally determined Bindura nickel ore slurry, known to be rheologically
complex due to the presence of brous mineral types, such as serpentine. The modelling methodology
was rst validated against published experimental results in a stirred tank, and results were experimentally validated using piezoelectric pressure transducers to measure the magnitude of pressure uctuations due to the uid velocity in order to dene the cavern boundary. Both experimental and
numerical ndings show that a cavern forms around the stator, with its size depending on slurry yield
stress. It was also found that the shearstress transport (SST) kx turbulence model predicted the cavern
boundary most accurately.
2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
The mixing of non-Newtonian uids, which are found in a wide
range of industries, is poorly understood due to the often high
apparent viscosities, complex changes in rheology during agitation,
and the fact that many also exhibit a yield stress that needs to be
overcome for the uid to ow. Certain liquidsolid mineral slurry
suspensions used in otation cells in the minerals processing
industry are one such example of these types of uids. Various
researchers have found that these slurries exhibit different rheological behaviours depending on their physical and chemical characteristics such as particle type, particle size, solids concentration
and pulp chemistry (Prestidge, 1997; Tseng and Chen, 2003; He
et al., 2006).
Due to the preferential use of high quality ores in the past, mining operations are having to process more complex, nely disseminated ore bodies, and in order to do this ores are having to be
ground to ever ner particle sizes, and this therefore increases
the non-Newtonian nature of the slurries. Solids concentrations
are also being increased in order to reduce water consumption, further increasing the slurries non-Newtonian nature. Until recently,
however, researchers have modelled all mineral slurries as Newtonian uids when, in many cases, they may not be. One such case
rheology of slurries on the ow dynamics inside mechanical otation cells, and the potential formation of caverns around the impeller. This was done using the commercial CFD package Fluent 6.3 as
a peer methodology in the absence of suitable experimental techniques. In order to validate the modelling methodology, the ow
inside a tank stirred by a pitch-blade turbine (PBT) was predicted
and compared to published experimental results by Adams and
Barigou, 2007. Adams and Barigou conducted experimental tests
on the PBT at various impeller speeds, and visualised the ow
using Planar Laser Induced Fluorescence (PLIF), presenting results
of the cavern boundary position at each impeller speed. They also
compared their experimental results to CFD simulations, but since
only laminar simulations were conducted, accurate predictions
were only obtained at low speeds where the ow was still in the
laminar regime. The methodology developed was then used to
model the more complex mechanical otation cell. The predicted
results were validated using experimental measurements. These
were in the form of cavern boundary positions obtained using
measurements of the magnitude of pressure uctuations in an
experimental pilot scale otation cell containing mineral slurry,
from which the the movement of the slurry, and therefore the size
of the cavern, could be determined.
2. Model description
2.1. Experimental geometry
This study was conducted on a 100l pilot scale Bateman otation cell (Fig. 1), with diameter, T 540 mm, and liquid depth,
Z 445 mm, which consists of a 6 bladed impeller of maximum
diameter, D 150 mm, tapering down to 70 mm at the lower edge,
and height W 100 mm. This was surrounded by a ring of 16 stator blades of 70 mm by 36 mm attached to a 250 mm diameter stator disc. The impeller bottom clearance was C b 83 mm.
The modelling methodology was rst validated by modelling a
simple impeller driven stirred tank as used in both experimental
and numerical studies by Adams and Barigou (2007). This consisted of a tank with T 148 mm, with four bafes of width
0:1 T, and agitated by a 6 bladed 45 down-pumping pitch-blade
turbine (PBT). The diameter of the impeller, D T=3, and the offbottom clearance equalled T=3. For both models, the impeller
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s sy kc_ n
and since viscosity,
l s=c_
s
l _y kc_ n1
c
l ly for 0 6 c_ 6 sy =ly
sy kc_ n sy =ly n
for c_ > sy =ly
c_
This means that only once the shear rate reaches a value of
c_ e ks N
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Table 1
Densities and HerschelBulkley model parameters of slurry.
Bindura 40 wt%
Bindura 50 wt%
Bindura 50 wt%
Density
kg=m3
sy
k
kg=m s
(Pa)
1364
1500
1667
0.456
8.189
4.741
0.439
2.130
3.774
0.34
0.323
0.565
Fig. 2. Effect of solid concentration on (a) extrapolated Bingham yield stress and (b)
Bingham viscosity, with exponential t.
Table 2
Bingham plastic model parameters.
sy
Bindura 40 wt%
Bindura 50 wt%
Bindura 50 wt%
(Pa)
k
(kg/m s)
1.945
8.189
52.180
6:79 103
1:47 102
7:42 102
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As with the PBT, only half of the cell was modelled using a
three-dimensional mesh of 778 700 hexahedral cells, as is seen in
Fig. 4. Again, the full 360 mesh is shown to improve clarity. Grid
renement tests were conducted and it was found that there was
no appreciable difference in results predicted with ner meshes.
Due to the small gap between the stationary stator blades and
the rotating impeller (14 mm), the cylindrical rotating impeller region could only extend 7 mm beyond the impeller in the radial
direction, and because of the proximity of the stator disc above
the impeller, it could only extend above the impeller by 2.5 mm
and 48.5 mm below. This causes there to be a strong time dependent interaction between ow generated by the impeller and the
stator blades, which makes the geometry unsuitable for the steady-state MRF model (Tabor et al., 1996; Deglon and Meyer,
2006). It was also found that the MRF model underpredicted the
power draw of the cell, since it is dependent on the relative positioning between the impeller and stator blades. The unsteady sliding mesh method of modelling the impeller rotation was therefore
used. The MRF model was used however to provide initial conditions for the sliding mesh model in order to reduce computational
time. A time step corresponding to 0:5 of rotation was used to
achieve adequate convergence during the rst revolution. By viewing the coefcient of moment on the impeller blades, it was found
that the ow reached a quasi-steady state after two revolutions,
with the moment prediction on the impeller being periodic as
the blades moved past the stator blades. Simulations took approximately 10 h per revolution. It was also found that simulations of
the higher solid concentration slurry converged more rapidly due
to the higher apparent viscosity and therefore higher viscous
damping. The non-Newtonian slurry was modelled as a
Fig. 4. Mesh used to model otation cell (652 000 hexahedral cells).
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single-phase uid of uniform rheology using a user-dened function to dene the viscosity as a function of c_ .
with a stator blade. It can be seen that movement occurs throughout the cell. The slurry leaves the impeller in a predominantly tangential direction, as in a conventional stirred tank, with no axial
ow component in the ow due to the solid stator disc above.
The ow is redirected by the stator blades to become predominantly radial, with periodic plumes forming from each of the 16
stator blades. These plumes then stagnate upon reaching the tank
wall, where the majority of the ow is redirected downward and
forms a vortex below the height of the stator disc, returning to
the impeller. Part of the ow forms a weak, yet large, circulation
pattern above the stator disc, reaching all the way to the free surface of the cell.
Simulations of ow in the cell containing non-Newtonian slurries are very different, as can be seen in Fig. 7, which shows velocity contours on a vertical cross-section through the cell containing
60 wt% Bindura nickel slurry in line with a stator blade at the same
impeller speed. The ow of slurry at the same impeller speed
shows highly restricted circulation in the top half of the cell due
to its yield stress. It was found that a cavern of yielded slurry
formed in this region, while above this the shear stress in the
remaining slurry was not high enough to overcome the yield stress,
and it therefore remained stagnant. The ow structure around the
impeller and in the radial jet leaving the stator ring remained similar to that in water.
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As with the PBT, the cavern boundary was dened as an isosurface of strain rate equal to sy =ly . It was found both experimentally
and numerically that caverns were only formed in 60 wt% slurry at
300 and 450 rpm, as well as to a far smaller degree in 50 wt% slurry
at 300 rpm. Although other combinations of solids concentration
and impeller speed showed considerable retardation of ow near
the free surface in the cell, the shear rate throughout the cell was
always above the value dened to be stagnant. As can be seen in
Fig. 8, there was close agreement between predicted and experimental cavern boundaries. Due to the nature of the measurement
technique, the experimental cavern boundary measurements only
consist of a cluster of points equal to 0.1% of the maximum value
measured in the radial plane, as explained earlier. Horizontal dotted lines are therefore shown to dene the maximum and minimum heights of the cavern. Vertical dotted lines show the limits
of the possible measurement positions due to physical constraints
in the radial direction. These lines therefore create an area in which
the cavern boundary passes through. Fig. 8a show that in 50 wt%
slurry at 300 rpm a cavern is predicted only in the far corner of
the cell, whereas experimental measurements show a cavern forming below the entire free surface, dropping near the tank wall.
Fig. 8b shows a large amount of scatter in experimental results
in 60 wt% slurry at 300 rpm. This is due to the amplied noise having an effect due to the low uid speeds. The predicted cavern is
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