Numerical Simulation And Performance Research Of A New Flotation Column

This paper developed a new flotation column and it can expand the size of particles.Under the condition of ensuring the liberation of the useful minerals,it not only can be used for the flotation of fine mineral particles in the pulp,but also can recover some of the coarse particles larger than 0.075 mm.In this paper,a ordinary flotation column was used as the initial model of simulation,and the structure of the ordinary flotation column was optimized by FLUENT software.According to the result of simulation can gain a new flotation column.The new flotation column is mainly consisted of cylinder,foam tank,feed pipe,discharge pipe,bubble generator,circulating funnel,circulating pipe and circulating pump.The main characteristic of the new flotation column has six circulating pipes,and they are symmetrically distributed on both sides of the column and each circulating pipe has a valve.When the flotation operation,people can use the valve to control the circulating height of the ore particles according to the nature and size of the ore composition.This paper used a low grade phosphate ore in Guizhou as the test sample.Under the condition of six different grinding fineness,there were some experiments were carried out about the height of the circulating pipes,the single side circulation and the symmetrical circulation.The test results of height show that when the grinding fineness is in the range of 67.13%~81.34%,it should choose a high cycle to improve the concentrate grade and recovery rate of P2O5;When the grinding fineness is greater than 81.34%,it should choose a middle cycle to increase the effect.The results of unilateral circulation and symmetrical circulation indicate that when the grinding fineness is in the range of 67.13%~81.34%,it should choose unilateral circulation and should choose symmetrical circulation when the grinding fineness is greater than81.34% to improve phosphorus concentrate grade and recovery rate.Comparative experiments were carried out by using ordinary flotation column,and the experimental results showed:In the grinding fineness of-0.075 mm accounted for 84.98%,the concentrate grade was obtained by new flotation column has reached the best index of ordinary flotation column,and it had little difference compared with that of ordinary flotation column,but the recovery rate is increased by 0.43% than ordinary flotation column.When the-0.075 mm content of the grinding fineness was88.53%,the grade of P2O5 in the concentrate was increased by 0.29% compared with that of the ordinary flotation column,and the recovery rate of P2O5 in the concentrate was higher than that of the ordinary flotation column.This showed that the new flotation column can be used to enlarge the flotation size limit through recycled pipelines and valves,so that it could not only float ore particles less than 0.075 mm,but also recycle parts of ordinary flotation column,which is greater than 0.075 mm particles.