3rd International Brazilian Conference on Tribology – TriBoBR 2018

Florianópolis, Brazil, 3-5 December 2018

Abrasiveness of mining slurries: influence of the morphology, concentration of

slurries, mean grain size and nature of the abrasive particles.
Moreira, V. E. S.1)*, Silva, F. C.1), Quintão, V. M1)., Siqueira, F.1)*, Kaelber, F.2), Meinhold, S 2)* ,
Schenk, J. 3) and Costa, A. R.1)*
1)
REDEMAT - Rede Temática em Engenharia de Materiais – UFOP; Ouro Preto – MG - 35400-000 - Brazil
2)
Reutlingen University – Germany; 3) Leoben University –Austria
*
Corresponding authors: arcosta55@gmail.com; victorericmoreira@hotmail.com; francismar.siqueira@yahoo.com.br; st.meinhold@t-online.de

1. Abstract “tabular plates” [2].

This work focus on relevant aspects concerning the 3.3 Mean grain size and Concentration (dilution)
wear of metallic materials [1] for pipelines transporting The influence of mean grain size of particles, the
slurry, especially in mining industry. The goal is to dilution and the silica content is summarized in the
contribute to the understanding of which properties of Figure 2. Otherwise, the overall behavior of these
slurries influence the abrasive behavior in which way. slurries shows a good correlation between the
Properties of particles present in slurries, such as, nature concentration and the abrasiveness: Figure 3.
(chemical composition), morphology, concentration
(dilution of particles in water) and mean grain size were
examined in order to provide information to analyze and
discuss wear of a pipeline material (API X70 steel
grade) in order to guide the best selection of materials
for future projects. Results point to positive correlation
between abrasiveness and mean grain size, dilution of Figure 1: Abrasive particles observed by SEM.
slurry and silica content.

Key-words: iron ore slurries; Miller Number; SAR Index;

2. Materials and Methods

(a) (b)
Experiments were conducted following the procedure Figure 2 - Influence of mean grain size; solid concentration - a (33%);
suggested by the Standard ASTM G75-07 to determine b(60%) - and Silica content on the abrasiveness of slurry.
the indicators Miller Number and SAR index.

3. Results and Discussion

3.1 Chemical Composition and concentration
In the microscopic recording - Fig. 1 - two kinds of
particles are revealed: bright particles with clear
surfaces and dark particles with rough surface. A more
accurate look on the geometric faces of the particles and
comparison to possible iron ores morphologies revealed
that the shinier particles must be hematite, Fe2O3.The
chemical determination spectra for the black particles
revealed silicon and oxygen in a lower level, thus, they
must be SiO2. These two oxides are the main
components of iron ores. The ratio between silica and
hematite is measured according to their presence in the
analyzed picture. Their values for the slurries from
batch S1 are shown in Table I.
Table I - Ratio of silica and hematite in the slurries S1
Slurry S1-A S1-B
Hematite [%] 60 50
Silica [%] 40 50
Silica/Hematite 0.67 1.0
3.2 Morphology
In these two slurries (S1-A and S1-B) the particles look
similar. The silica particles are big polyhedral bodies
with a rough surface appearance due to the conchoidal
fracture typical of crystals belonging to trigonal
crystallographic system. The edges have mostly obtuse
angles. The hematite is mostly present in small
fragments but also in greater particles present as
Figure 3 - SAR-Number evolution for slurry S1-Ax% with increasing
concentration(dilution)
Conclusions
Results showed that not just one property has an effect on
the abrasiveness of the slurry. All properties act together.
It may happen that one property can reverse the positive
effect of another one.
Slurries with higher Silica content are related to higher
wear rates because the morphology of silica particles is
more abrasive.
5. References
[1] Sommer,K.; Heinz, R.; Schöfer, R.; Verschleiß
metallischer Werkstoffe, 2.Edition, Germany: Springer,
2014 - ISBN: 978-3-8348-2463-9
[2] Manual of mineralogy (after James D. Dana)
Cornelis Klein, Cornelius S. Hurlbut, Dana, James
Dwight, 20th ed. New York Wiley 1985. ISBN
0471805807 . Open Library.