Minerals Engineering 55 (2014) 138146

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Minerals Engineering
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/mineng

Capture of impacting particles on a conned gasliquid interface

Dongmei Liu , Qinglin He, Geoffrey Evans
School of Engineering, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 23 April 2013
Accepted 2 October 2013

Keywords:
Film otation
Critical impact velocity
YoungLaplace equation
Contact angle

a b s t r a c t
Film otation is highly dependent upon how well wanted and unwanted particles are separated at the
gasliquid free surface. Single particle experiments and modelling analysis can be undertaken to determine
a critical impact velocity at which the optimum separation is likely to occur. However, in commercial lm
otation systems the higher loading density of the free surface can result in interactions that change the
critical impact velocity. To investigate this inuence, lm otation experiments have been undertaken with
4, 5 and 6 mm diameter spherical polypropylene particles with water, sucrose and surfactant (CTAB) solutions contained within vessels of varying dimensions and wettability (static contact angle). Experimentally
it was observed that for a given particle diameter the critical impact velocity was found to decrease with
decreasing vessel diameter, especially when the particle-to-vessel diameter ratio increased beyond about
0.2. Conversely, the critical impact velocity was found to be relatively independent of the liquid depth;
but did decrease with decreasing static contact angle in the region where the vessel wall had an inuence.
The experimental system was also modelled using the YoungLaplace equation using both static and advancing contact angle measurements for both the particle and vessel surfaces. The model predictions were generally in good agreement with the experimental observations, including showing an increase in particle
penetration depth with increasing vessel diameter and meniscus proles, both at the particle impact point
and the wall of the vessel. The predictions were improved when the advancing contact angle was used, especially for the smaller diameter vessels where there was more liquid motion. Finally, a model to determine the
critical (minimum) diameter of vessel required so that the cavity prole generated by the impacting particle
is unlikely to be inuenced by the vessel walls is presented.
2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Many industrial processes involve the interaction of particles
with gasliquid interfaces. For example, in conventional mineral
otation devices bubbles are used to separate hydrophobic and
hydrophilic particles. The overall recovery of the hydrophobic particles by the bubbles occurs in three stages. Firstly, physical collision is required between the bubbles and particles. Secondly,
sufcient contact time is required to allow the hydrophobic particles to penetrate the gasliquid interface and be become physically
attached to the bubblesotherwise the particles will slide off the
bubbles. Finally, the particles must remain attached to the bubbles
whilst being subjected to the turbulence in the liquid (e.g. Schulze,
1977; Schulze, 1993; Drzymala, 1994; Ralston et al., 1999; Nguyen,
2003; Pyke et al., 2003; Pyke, 2004; Schimann, 2004; Tao, 2004;
Gontijo et al., 2007; Shahbazi et al., 2009). In order to reduce the
probability of detachment then turbulence should be minimised.
However, doing this would reduce the probability of particlebubble collision which would lead to a reduction in otation recovery.
Hence, turbulence can simultaneously have both a benecial and
Corresponding author. Tel.: +61 2 40339221.
E-mail address: dongmei.liu@newcastle.edu.au (D. Liu).
0892-6875/$ - see front matter 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mineng.2013.10.001

detrimental inuence on otation recovery. Ideally, it would be

benecial to have a system whereby turbulence is not the dominating operational parameter and collision and detachment are
independently controlled.
The competing inuence of turbulence on particlebubble collision and detachment, experienced in conventional otation devices, is avoided in lm otation. Here, the particles are initially
in the gas phase and projected directly onto a gasliquid free
surface. Under the correct conditions, the hydrophobic particles
are retained (collected) at the free surface whilst the hydrophilic
particles fully penetrate the gasliquid interface and sink to the
bottom of the liquid. Whether or not the particle will be collected
at the interface, is a function of the particle impact velocity and
physical properties of the system. There are two main advantages
of lm otation. Firstly, all of the particles are directed onto the
gasliquid interface and therefore the collision probability is unity.
Secondly, as turbulence is no longer required to generate the
particlebubble collisions the liquid stream can be relatively
quiescent to ensure a low probability of the collected particles
becoming detached from the free surface.
Film otation was rst patented in 1885 (Bradford, 1885), and
has been further developed to separate mineral particles (e.g.
Davis, 1901; Maust and Hollingsworth, 1942; Tran et al, 2010;

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D. Liu et al. / Minerals Engineering 55 (2014) 138146

Nomenclature
Bo
D
Dc
dp
g
H
H0
h0
hTPCL
L
DP
R
Rc
R1, R2
r1
r0
rp
rTPCL
T

bond number, (Dc/L)2 ()

vessel diameter (m)
vessel critical diameter, as dened by Eq. (6) (m)
particle diameter (m)
acceleration due to gravity (m/s2)
particle fall height above undisturbed free surface (m)
liquid initial height (m)
critical height of particle (m)
three phase contact line vertical position relative to the
free surface (m)
p
capillary length, L 2rgl =ql g (-)
pressure difference (kg/ms2)
vessel radius (m)
vessel critical radius (m)
principle radii of curvature (m)
liquid-wall meniscus horizontal length shown in Fig. 11
(m)
cavity radius shown in Fig. 11 (m)
particle radius (m)
three phase contact line radius of (m)
temperature (K)

Liu et al, 2010b). Film otation can be generally classied into two
modes of operation. Firstly, the particle can be placed directly onto
the liquid with zero impact velocity (e.g. Walker et al., 1952; Zisman 1964; Fuerstenau et al., 1985; Fuerstenau et al., 1986; Fuerstenau and Williams, 1987; Diao, 1987; Fuerstenau et al., 1988;
Fuerstenau et al., 1991; Diao and Fuerstenau, 1991; Fuerstenau and
Diao, 1992; Sablik and Wierzchowski, 1992; Peng, 1996; Sablik,
2004; Sablik, 2007; Somasundaran and Zhang, 2006; Suicmez
and Kizgut, 2010; Kowalczuk and Drzymala, 2012). There is the
operational difculty of gently placing a monolayer of a large number of particles (with zero velocity) onto a moving liquid surface;
and for this reason there is a second mode of operation whereby
the particles are discharged from a moving horizontal belt at a given
height above the liquid free surface (e.g.: Liu et al., 2010b; Liu, 2012).
For this second mode of operation the particles are moving in the vertically downward direction when they contact the liquid free surface.
From an operational point of view it is important to know the
critical impact velocity, vc, beyond which the particle would penetrate entirely through the gasliquid interface and not be recovered. The value of the critical impact velocity can be calculated
by undertaking a force balance on the particle over the duration
of the impact. Such an analysis for an individual particle penetrating through a large gasliquid interface has been investigated by a
number of researchers (e.g. Engh et al., 1972; Paliy and Sidorenko,
1972; Narita et al., 1983; Ozawa and Mori, 1983; Lee and Tokuda,
1988; Vella and Metcalfe, 2007; Lee and Kim, 2008; Liu et al.,
2010a). However, a real lm otation system involves a large number of particles falling onto the free liquid surface together so that
each particle is surrounded by many others. What effect, if any, the
proximity of other particles has on the critical impact velocity has
not been reported previously. For this reason, the following experimental and modelling investigation into the behaviour of a single
particle impacting onto a conned volume (diameter and depth) of
liquid has been undertaken.
2. YoungLaplace equation at critical condition
The YoungLaplace Equation (YL) for equilibrium conditions in
the absence of any motion (kinetic energy) within the system is
given by (Young, 1805; Laplace, 1805):

vc
vi
vl
vp
vTPCL
Vp
Vl

time (s)
critical impact velocity of particle (m/s)
impact velocity of particle (m/s)
velocity of liquid (m/s)
velocity of particle (m/s)
velocity of TPCL (m/s)
particle volume (m3)
liquid volume (m3)

Greek symbols
a
angle, dened by Eq. (5)
h
contact angle of liquid on particle ()
ha
advancing contact angle of liquid on particle ()
hs
static contact angle of liquid on particle ()
ll
dynamic viscosity of liquid (Pa s)
ql
density of liquid (kg/m3)
qp
density of particle (kg/m3)
rgl
surface tension of gasliquid interface (kg/s2)
u
contact angle of liquid at vessel wall ()
ua
advancing contact angle of liquid at vessel wall ()
us
static contact angle of liquid at vessel wall ()

DP rgl


1
1
;

R1 R2

where DP is the pressure difference across a gasliquid interface

with principle radii of curvature, R1 and R2, and interfacial tension,
rgl. In this study, the YL equation is being applied to the case of a
liquid control volume, Vl, occupying a conned cylindrical volume
with diameter, D, and initial height, H0, being impacted upon by a
falling particle travelling at its critical impact velocity, vc. Two instances in time are considered. Firstly, as shown in Fig. 1a at time,
t = 0, when the particle has just touched the gasliquid interface.
In this instance liquid is stationary, so the application of the YL
equation is valid.
The second instance is at a critical time, t = tc, once the particle
has penetrated a distance, h0, below the undisturbed free surface
and the particle downward velocity is zero (Fig. 1b). Particle image
velocimetry measurements (Liu, 2012) at the critical time show
negligible velocity of the liquid around the particle surface; and
therefore valid to use the YL equation to describe the resultant
cavity prole (meniscus prole). Applying Eq. (1) to the geometry
shown in Fig. 1 and relating the DP across the interface to the static
pressure in the liquid, the resultant expression for liquid height, h,
from the base of the volume, as a function of radial position, r, is
given by:

8
9 8
9
>
>
2
2
=
<
= <
h
d h=dr
dh=dr
h

;
i
2
3=2
1=2
>
>
L
: 1 dh=dr2
; :r1 dh=dr 2  ;

where L is the capillary length. Eq. (2) can be solved numerically to

obtain the meniscus (interface) prole, h, as a function of radial position, r, once the boundary conditions at the particle surface and
the vessel volume are dened. From Fig. 1, at time, t = 0, it can be
seen that:
dh
j 0
dr r0
dh
j D=2
dr r

cot uS

where us is the static contact angle between the liquid and the
cylinder wall surface. At time, t = tc, the corresponding boundary
conditions are:

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D. Liu et al. / Minerals Engineering 55 (2014) 138146

(a) Time, t =0

(b) Time, t = tc

Fig. 1. Particle at critical velocity impacting on a conned gasliquid interface.

dh
j
tanh
dr rr TPCL
dh
j
cot
dr rD=2

 a

where h and u are the contact angles for the particle and cylinder
wall, respectively; and a is given by:

a arcsinrTPCL =rp :

3. Experimental
The experimental apparatus is shown in Fig. 2. It consisted of a
particle release device, vessel lled with liquid, lab-jack and high
speed video camera. The particles used were spherical polypropylene particles of diameters 4.0, 5.0 and 6.0 mm, and density of
855 kg/m3. The liquids used were: (1) Milli-Q water, (2) 450 g/L sucrose aqueous solution and (3) 2  104 mol/L cetyl trimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) aqueous solution. The vessels used
were: (1) 150(L) mm  100(W) mm  100(H) mm glass vessel,
(2) 10, 14, 17 and 21 mm diameter, unsilanized glass tubes, (3)
10 mm diameter silanized (with 0.1 mol/L TMCS solution) glass
tube, and (4) 10 mm diameter Perspex tube. Liquid depth was
adjusted to observe the inuence on critical impact velocity. The
contact angles were measured using Optical Contact Angle (OCA)
20 device. A summary of the physical properties of experimental
materials and experimental conditions at 20 C are shown in
Tables 1 and 2.

Fig. 2. Experimental apparatus.

The experimental procedure involved the release of a polypropylene spherical particle at a known height above the free liquid
surface, H0. A high speed camera (Phantom V), operating at 1900
frames per second, was used to visually record the motion of the
particle as it passed through the gas phase, collided with the
gasliquid interface, and penetrated into the liquid. For each particle-liquid-vessel system, the release height was varied to obtain
the critical value, above which the impacting particle would penetrate into the liquid. For these conditions the high speed video
images were analysed to obtain the (critical) particle impact velocity and a spatial prole of the free surface (cavity). The reported results were the average of at least 3 repeated experiments. From the

Table 1
Physical properties of particles and solutions.

a
b
c

dp (mm)

qp (kg/m3)

Solution

h ()

ql (kg/m3)

ll (10-3 Pas)

rgl (103 N/m)

4.0
5.0
6.0

855
855
855

Milli-Q water
450 g/L sucrose
2  104 mol/L CTAB

89
90
85

1000
1182
1000

1.002
4.796a
1.002

72.75
87.42b
60.85c

Chenlo et al. (2002).

Docoslis et al. (2000).
Zdziennicka et al. (2009).

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D. Liu et al. / Minerals Engineering 55 (2014) 138146

Table 2
Experimental conditions.
Experiment

dp (mm)

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18

4.0,
4.0,
4.0,
4.0,
4.0,
4.0
5.0
6.0
4.0
5.0
6.0
4.0
5.0
6.0
6.0
4.0,
4.0,
4.0,

5.0,
5.0,
5.0,
5.0,
5.0,

6.0
6.0
6.0
6.0
6.0

5.0, 6.0
5.0, 6.0
5.0, 6.0

t=0.0 ms

Solution

Dimension (mm)

H (mm)

Material

Silanized

Milli-Q water
450 g/L sucrose
2  104 mol/L CTAB
Milli-Q water
450 g/L sucrose
Milli-Q water
Milli-Q water
Milli-Q water
450 g/L sucrose
450 g/L sucrose
450 g/L sucrose
2  104 mol/L CTAB
2  104 mol/L CTAB
2  104 mol/L CTAB
Milli-Q water
Milli-Q water
Milli-Q water
Milli-Q water

150(L)  100(W)
150(L)  100(W)
150(L)  100(W)
D = 10, 14, 17, 21
D = 10, 14, 21
150(L)  100(W)
150(L)  100(W)
150(L)  100(W)
150(L)  100(W)
150(L)  100(W)
150(L)  100(W)
150(L)100(W)
150(L)100(W)
150(L)100(W)
D = 17
D = 10
D = 10
D = 10

100
100
100
100
100
6.5, 8, 9.6
8, 9.6
9.6
7, 8, 9.6
8, 9.6
9.6
7.5, 8.5
8.5
10.2
10, 20, 30, 50
50
50
50

Glass
Glass
Glass
Glass
Glass
Glass
Glass
Glass
Glass
Glass
Glass
Glass
Glass
Glass
Glass
Glass
Perspex
Glass

No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
Yes

t=18.9 ms

t=40.5 ms

t=67.3 ms

t=86.3 ms

t=52.6 ms

t=89.4 ms

(a) Un-silanized glass tube (Exp. 16)

t=0.0 ms

t=16.8 ms

t=40.5 ms

(b) Silanized glass tube (Exp. 18)

Fig. 3. Images showing cavity development at critical impact conditions. (Liquid: Milli-Q water; D = 10 mm; dp = 5.0 mm.)

measurements the inuence of vessel size and hydrophobicity of

the vessel inner-wall on the cavity prole and critical impact velocity was able to be determined.
4. Results and discussion
4.1. Inuence of Tube Contact Angle (u) on critical impact velocity (vc)
Fig. 3 shows a series of high speed video images of a 6.0 mm
diameter polypropylene spherical particle falling at its critical impact velocity into a 10 mm diameter glass tube, which has been (a)
un-silanized (us = 60.5), and (b) silanized (us = 90). In both (a)
and (b) the centre image is at the critical condition, when particle
downward velocity is zero. Focusing on the critical condition (centre image), it can be seen that the cavity proles are quite different,
with the more hydrophobic tube (image b) having a narrower
cavity opening, shallower cavity depth and smaller three phase
contact line than that for the more hydrophilic surface (image a).
The critical impact velocity of the particle is also inuenced by
the wettability of the tube surface as shown in Fig. 4, where the
experimental observations have been plotted for us equal to
60.5, 73 and 90, and polypropylene particle diameters of 4.0,
5.0 and 6.0 mm (Exps. 1618). A two-way analysis of variance
(ANOVA) has been performed to assess the inuence of the particle

Fig. 4. Critical impact velocity (vc) versus tube surface contact angle (us). (Exps. 16
18: liquid: Milli-Q water; D = 10 mm; N dp = 4.0 mm; j dp = 5.0 mm; and 
dp = 6.0 mm.)

diameter and tube surface wettability on the critical impact velocity. The resultant F values were found to be 304 and 42 for varying
particle diameter and tube surface wettability, respectively. The
values are greater than F0.01 (2, 4) equal to 18.0, indicating that
both the particle diameter and tube surface wettability have statistically signicant effects on the critical impact velocity.

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D. Liu et al. / Minerals Engineering 55 (2014) 138146

4.2. Inuence of tube liquid volume (Vl) on critical impact velocity (vc)
The effect of liquid volume on the critical impact velocity for the
6.0 mm diameter polypropylene spherical particle impacting
inside a 17 mm diameter tube containing Milli-Q water (Exp. 15)

was investigated. The results are shown in Fig. 5 as a function of

normalised volume, Vp/Vl, where Vl was varied by changing the liquid height, H, in the range 1050 mm which corresponded to Vp/Vl
ratios of 0.05 and 0.01, respectively.
It can be seen that the critical impact velocity remained constant in the range where the volume of the particle was less than
5% of the liquid volume. Given that the liquid volume was varied
by changing the depth, it would seem that liquid depth, or proximity of the bottom of the tube, had either little or no inuence on the
particle penetration behaviour, even when the liquid depth was
only 10 mm. The effect of liquid depth for other liquid-particle systems is investigated in the following section.
4.3. Inuence of liquid depth (H0) on critical impact velocity (vc)

Fig. 5. Critical impact velocity (vc) versus particle to liquid volume (Vp/Vl). (Exp. 15:
vessel: un-silanized glass tube; liquid: Milli-Q water; D = 17 mm; dp = 6.0 mm.)

Critical impact velocity measurements were performed in the

150(L) mm  100(W) mm  100(H) mm glass vessel at varying liquid depths for different diameter polypropylene spherical particles in combination with Milli-Q water, 450 g/L sucrose, and
2  104 mol/L CTAB aqueous solutions. The results are presented
in Fig. 6, where it can be seen that vc was relatively independent
of dp/H ratio for all three systems, even at dp/H = 0.6 when the penetrating particle was almost touching the base of the vessel.
4.4. Inuence of tube diameter (D) on critical impact velocity (vc)
Critical impact velocity measurements were performed in different diameter tubes, D, with a liquid depth of 100 mm for different
diameter polypropylene spherical particles in combination with
Milli-Q water and 450 g/L sucrose aqueous solutions. The results
are presented in Fig. 7, where it can be seen that for both the

(a) Milli-Q water [Exps. 1, 6-8]

(b) 450 g/L sucrose aqueous solution

[Exps. 2, 9-11]

(c) 210-4 mol/L CTAB aqueous solution

[Exps. 3, 12-14]
Fig. 6. Critical impact velocity (vc) versus (dp/H) ratio. (Vessel: tank; N dp = 4.0 mm;
j dp = 5.0 mm; and  dp = 6.0 mm.)

(a) Milli-Q water [Exps. 1, 4]

(b) 450g/l sucrose aqueous solution [Exps. 2, 5]

Fig. 7. Critical impact velocity (vc) versus vessel diameter (D). (Vessel: un-silanized
glass tube and tank; N dp = 4.0 mm; j dp = 5.0 mm; and  dp = 6.0 mm.)

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D. Liu et al. / Minerals Engineering 55 (2014) 138146

(a) Static contact angle

[s = 89, s = 60.5]

(b) Advancing contact angle

[a = 108, a =s = 60.5]

Fig. 8. Comparison of calculated and measured cavity proles. (Exp. 16:  undisturbed airwater interface at initial state; measured prole at nal state; calculated
prole using YoungLaplace applying static (a)/advancing and (b) contact angles; vessel: un-silanized glass tube; liquid: Milli-Q water; D = 10 mm; dp = 5.0 mm.)

Milli-Q water and sucrose solutions the critical impact velocity

increased with a decrease in particle diameter. This result is
consistent with those of other researchers, e.g. Ozawa and Mori
(1983). It can also be seen that vc decreased with decreasing tube
diameter; and that the decrease occurred more rapidly for D less
than about 20 mm. The implication here is that the critical impact
velocity is likely to be lower when many impacting particles are in
close proximity to each other which often occurs at the lm
otation.

D = 10 mm

D = 20 mm

4.5. Comparison between use of static (s) or advancing contact angle

(a) when determining free surface prole and critical particle height
(h0)
When applying the YoungLaplace equation (Eq. (2)) to describe the prole of the gasliquid interface (meniscus), then
according to Eq. (4) either the static or advancing contact angle
for the particle-liquidgas, h, and vessel wall-liquid-gas, u, can
be used as the boundary conditions. The comparison between
using the static and dynamic contact angles is shown in Fig. 8 for
the 5.0 mm polypropylene spherical particle falling into a 10 mm
glass tube lled to an initial height of 15.5 mm with Milli-Q water.
When the static angle is used (Fig. 8a) it can be seen that at the
critical condition there is some variation between the YL prediction and the measured prole, with the predicted critical height,
h0, of 4.94 mm being less than the measured reading of 5.17 mm.
Better agreement is obtained when the advancing contact angle
on the particle surface is taken into account, as shown in Fig. 8b,
giving a computed critical height of the particle of 5.15 mm.

4.6. Inuence of vessel diameter (D) on critical particle height (h0)

The critical height of the particle has been computed using the
advancing contact angles of ua 60:5 and ha = 108 for the
5.0 mm diameter polypropylene spherical particle falling into vessels with diameters of 10, 20, 30, 40, 46 and 50 mm and lled with
Milli-Q water. The computed proles are given in Fig. 9, where the
original undisturbed meniscus position is shown as a dotted line. It
can be seen that for the 10 mm tube the liquid rises well above the
original meniscus position. The increase in liquid height gradually
decreases with increasing D, until about 44 mm beyond which
gasliquid interface remains relatively unchanged. It can also be
seen that the particle critical height, h0, increases with increasing

D = 30 mm

D = 40 mm

D = 46mm

D = 50mm

Fig. 9. Cavity meniscus prole versus vessel diameter (D). (Eq. (2); original meniscus
position; vessel: un-silanized glass tube; liquid: Milli-Q water; dp = 5.0 mm.)

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D. Liu et al. / Minerals Engineering 55 (2014) 138146

the motion of a particle impacting on a very large free gasliquid

interface and arriving at its nal critical point, when the downwards motion of the particle, vp, is equal to zero. In Fig. 11d for a
vessel with large R, at the nal state (critical point) the gasliquid
interface can be divided into three zones, namely: (1) Impact
(rTPCL < r < r0), (2) Undisturbed (r0 < r < R  r1), and (3) boundary
wall meniscus (R  r1 < r < R). For large R, r0 and r1 can be assumed
to be independent of each other due to the presence of the undisturbed at surface (Zone 2) separating them. Supposing though
that R is decreased until a critical radius, Rc, is reached whereby
Zone 2 disappears and only Zones 1 and 3 remain. At this condition,
the vessel critical diameter, Dc, is given by:

Dc 2r 0 r 1 ;

where the gradient of the interface at the meeting point of Zones 1

and 3 is equal to zero, i.e.:

Fig. 10. Particle critical height (h0) versus vessel diameter (D). (Conditions
correspond to those of Fig. 9.)


dh
0;
dr rDc =2

tube diameter; and as shown in Fig. 10, reaches a relatively constant value of about 6.4 mm beyond a vessel diameter of 44 mm.

The zero gradient can be used as a boundary condition for solving the YL equation for Zones 1 and 3.

4.7. Estimation of vessel critical diameter (Dc) for no cavitymeniscus

interaction

4.7.1. Length of Zone 3 (r1) in determination of vessel critical diameter

(Dc)
For the gasliquid interface described in Fig. 12, the YL
equation can be solved (e.g. Kistler and Schweizer, 1997) for Bond
number (Dc/L)2, greater than 1 to obtain the vertical rise, h, as a
function of distance, r, from the vertical surface, i.e.:

The results shown in Figs. 9 and 10 for the cavity meniscus proles and particle critical height that the cavity produced by the penetrating particle is no longer inuenced by the boundary wall
when the vessel critical diameter, Dc, is greater than about
44 mm. Consider the situation shown in Fig. 11, which illustrates

dp

h
r

rf

h(t) v

TPCL (t)

vp=vc

hTPCL(t)

hTPCL

h0

rTPCL

vp(t)

vp=0

Control Volume

(a) Initial state

r0

(b) Intermediate state

(c) Final state

Zone 1
Zone 2

r0

r1

rTPCL
hTPCL

Zone 3

h0

Control Volume

(d) Final state showing impact (1), flat (2) and meniscus (3) zones
Fig. 11. Penetrating particle arriving at its critical impact velocity.

D. Liu et al. / Minerals Engineering 55 (2014) 138146

collected at the interface are below their critical velocity at the

point of impact. Provided that an appropriate fall height can be
chosen then there should not be any reduction in recovery of the
wanted material. Secondly, the critical velocity appears to be relatively independent of the height of the receiving liquid streamat
least for liquid heights of more than a few particle diameters. This
might not be the case when many particles are falling onto the liquid stream at the same time and would need to be investigated.
However, the likelihood is that the required liquid height will only
be of order of 0.050.10 m, which could probably result in an overall reduction in water consumption when compared with conventional otation operations. However, this would depend on the
allowable surface loadings of the moving liquid stream.

Free surface
r

145

Liquid

Fig. 12. Gasliquid interface at a vertical surface.

5. Conclusions

Fig. 13. Meniscus (Zone 3) proles for different us values.

(
h

p
L 21  sin us if us 6 p2
p
L 21  sin us if us > p2

The resultant plot of Eq. (8) using the system reported in Fig. 9
(5.0 mm polypropylene spherical particle falling into Milli-Q water
inside a glass vessel), is shown in Fig. 13 for contact angles in the
range 1080. For the experimental system the measured contact
angle was 60.5, and the point from the vertical surface at which
dh/dr is zero is approximately r = 15 mm. Hence, in estimating Dc
from Eq. (6), r1 can be assumed to be around 15 mm.
4.7.2. Length of Zone 1 (r0) in determination of vessel critical diameter
(Dc)
The cavity prole in Zone 1 can be calculated using the YL
equation with the following boundary conditions:
dh
j
dr rr TPCL
dh
j
dr rr 0

tanha  a

0:

In this study the effect of the vessel wall and volume of the liquid phase on the critical impact velocity of the particle was investigated to simulate the idealized inuence of surrounding particles
on the critical impact velocity. It was found that for a particle penetrating into a conned volume of liquid that the critical impact
velocity increased with increasing static contact angle of the vessel
wall. When the particle-to-vessel diameter ratio increased beyond
about 0.2 it was also found that for a given particle diameter the
critical impact velocity increased with increasing vessel diameter.
The critical impact velocity remained relatively unchanged with
particle-to-liquid volume fraction less than 0.05. The liquid depth
seemed to have little inuence on the critical impact velocity for
the different liquids tested.
The experimental system was modelled using the YoungLaplace equation using both static and advancing contact angle measurements for both the particle and vessel surfaces. The model
predictions were generally in good agreement with the experimental observations, including showing increase in particle penetration
depth with increasing diameter and meniscus proles, both at the
particle impact point and the wall of the vessel. The predictions
were improved when the advancing contact angle was used, especially for the smaller diameter vessels where there was more liquid
motion. The YoungLaplace equation was also able to provide an
estimation of the critical (minimum) diameter of vessel required
so that the cavity prole generated by the impacting particle is unlikely to be inuenced by the vessel walls. The estimated critical
vessel diameter was consistent with experimental observations.
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The resultant solution for the experimental system involving

the 5.0 mm diameter polypropylene spherical particle impacting
a large Milli-Q water surface, gives the radius, r0, of the cavity
opening of 18 mm, which is very similar to the measured value
of 18.1 mm. Hence, adding values of 15 and 18 mm for r1 and r0
then Dc is equal to about 33 mm, which compare favourably to
the proles presented in Figs. 9 and 10.
4.8. Application of the results from the idealized system to real lm
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