Abstract:

In practice, most operators tend to increase the feed pressure to improve the underflow concentration of the hydro-cyclone. The relationship between feed pressure and classifying/thickening performance was studied on the industrial operating 250 mm hydro-cyclones. Moreover, the affection of hindered settling on classification and thickening performance was researched. The results show that the optimal classification and enrichment performance are at different operating conditions. With the feeding pressure increasing, the concentration of the underflow increases, nevertheless, the classification efficiency declines rapidly. This can be explained by the hindered settling phenomenon in the section of the cyclone. As a consequence, both the enrichment performance and hindered settling must be taken into account when determine the rational feeding pressure so as to avoid sacrificing the classification efficiency.

Key words: hydro-cyclone, feeding pressure, classification, thickening, volume concentration, hindered settling