A novel approach to prevent bubble coalescence during measurement of bubble size in flotation

Effect of frothers in preventing bubble coalescence during flotation of minerals has long been investigated.To evaluate the performance of a frother,an apparatus to measure the bubble size is a basic necessity.McGill Bubble Size Analyzer(MBSA) or bubble viewer that has been developed and completed by McGill University's Mineral Processing Group during the last decade is a unique instrument to serve this purpose.Two parameters which are thought to influence the bubble size measurements by McGill bubble viewer include water quality and frother concentration in the chamber.Results show that there is no difference in Sauter mean(D32) when tap or de-ionized water was used instead of process water.However,the frother concentration,in this research DowFroth 250(DF250),inside the chamber exhibited a pronounced effect on bubble size.Frother concentration below a certain point can not prevent coalescence inside the chamber and therefore caution must be taken in plant applications.It was also noted that the frother concentration which has been so far practiced in plant measurements(CCC75-CCC95) is high enough to prevent coalescence with the bubble viewer.

CFD-PBM simulation of bubble coalescence and breakup in top blown-rotary agitated reactor

Gas–liquid flow and bubble coalescence and breakup behavior were studied in a top blown-rotary agitated reactor for steelmaking.Several important models of bubble coalescence and breakup mechanisms were considered and compared,and water model experiment was carried out to verify and optimize the mathematical models.The influence of different operating parameters including paddle arrangement,stirring speed and top blowing flow rate on the bubble size and distribution was revealed.The results show that the predicted bubble size and distribution present a good agreement with the experimental results using the improved Luo–Laakkonen combination model.As the position of the stirring paddle moves from the center to the side wall,the bubble distribution in the reactor becomes more uniform,and the bubble size gradually decreases.With the increase in the paddle rotation speed,the bubble size decreases.However,this effect begins to weaken when the paddle rotation speed exceeds 150 r/min.Increasing the top blowing flow rate will increase the bubble size in the reactor,but it has a weak effect on bubble dispersion.When the top blowing rate exceeds 2.0 m^(3)/h,the bubble size in the bath is basically not less than 5 mm.

Bubble Coalescence Heat Transfer During Subcooled Nucleate Pool Boiling

Bubble coalescence during subcooled nucleate pool boiling was investigated experimentally using constant wall temperature boundary conditions while the wall heat flux was measured at a various locations to understand the effects of coalescence on the heat transfer.The observations showed that the coalesced bubble moved and oscillated on the heater surface with significant heat transfer variations prior to departure.Some observations also showed coalescence with no increase in the heat transfer rate.The heat flux for boiling with coalescence fluctuated much more than for single bubble boiling due to the vaporization of the liquid layer trapped between the bubbles.

CFD simulation of gas–liquid flow in a high-pressure bubble column with a modified population balance model

In this study,based on the Luo bubble coalescence model,a model correction factor C_e for pressures according to the literature experimental results was introduced in the bubble coalescence efficiency term.Then,a coupled modified population balance model(PBM) with computational fluid dynamics(CFD) was used to simulate a high-pressure bubble column.The simulation results with and without C_e were compared with the experimental data.The modified CFD-PBM coupled model was used to investigate its applicability to broader experimental conditions.These results showed that the modified CFD-PBM coupled model can predict the hydrodynamic behaviors under various operating conditions.

The Effects of Frothers and Particles on the Characteristics of Pulp and Froth Properties in Flotation—A Critical Review

The pulp and froth zones are the main components of froth flotation as it defines both quality of the end product and overall efficiency. The importance of the properties of the two zones, which include pulp hydrodynamics, froth bubble coalescence rate, water overflow rate, air recovery, etc., is being increasingly recognized. The properties are depending not only on the type and concentration of the frother but also on the nature and amount of the particles present in the flotation system, and as well as the frother-particle interactions and potentially of bubble-particle interactions. To date, there is no specific criterion to quantify pulp and froth properties through the interactions between frothers and particles because the various related mechanisms occurring in the pulp and froth are not fully understood. Linking the properties to the metallurgical performance is also challenged. In order to better understand the effect of these issues in flotation, in this review paper, the past and recently published articles relevant to characterizations of pulp and froth properties are widely reviewed;the findings and the gap of knowledge in this area are highlighted for further research.

Effect of solids on pulp and froth properties in flotation

Froth flotation is a widely used process of particle separation exploiting differences in surface properties. It is important to point out that overall flotation performance(grade and recovery) is a consequence of the quality and quantity of the solid particles collected from the pulp phase, transported into the froth phase, and surviving as bubble-particle aggregates into the overflow. This work will focus on studying these phenomena and will incorporate the effects of particle hydrophobicities in the 3-phase system. Solids are classed as either hydrophilic non-sulphide gangue(e.g. silica, talc), hydrophilic sulphide(e.g. pyrite), or hydrophobic sulphide(e.g. sphalerite). Talc is a surface-active species of gangue that has been shown to behave differently from silica(frother adsorbs on the surface of talc particles). Both are common components of ores and will be studied in detail. The focus of this work is to investigate the role of solids on pulp hydrodynamics, froth bubble coalescence intensity, water overflow rate with solids present, and in particular, the interactions between solids, frother and gas on the gas dispersion parameters. The results show that in the pulp zone there is no effect of solids on bubble size and gas holdup; in the froth zone, although hydrophilic particles solely do not effect on the water overflow rate, hydrophobic particles produce higher intensity of rates on water overflow and bubble coalescence, and many be attributed to the water reattachment.

Simulation of bubble column reactors using CFD coupled with a population balance model

Bubble columns are widely used in chemical and biochemical processes due to their excellent mass and heat transfer characteristics and simple construction.However,their fundamental hydrodynamic behaviors,which are essential for reactor scale-up and design,are still not fully understood.To develop design tools for engineering purposes,much research has been carried out in the area of computationalfluid dynamics(CFD)modeling and simulation of gas-liquidflows.Due to the importance of the bubble behavior,the bubble size distribution must be considered in the CFD models.The population balance model(PBM)is an effective approach to predict the bubble size distribution,and great efforts have been made in recent years to couple the PBM into CFD simulations.This article gives a selective review of the modeling and simulation of bubble column reactors using CFD coupled with PBM.Bubble breakup and coalescence models due to different mechanisms are discussed.It is shown that the CFD-PBM coupled model with proper bubble breakup and coalescence models and interphase force formulations has the ability of predicting the complex hydrodynamics in differentflow regimes and,thus,provides a unified description of both the homo-geneous and heterogeneous regimes.Further study is needed to improve the models of bubble coalescence and breakup,turbulence modification in high gas holdup,and interphase forces of bubble swarms.

Critical Heat Flux of Boiling Heat Transfer in aModerate Narrow Space

Boiling heat transfer process is analyzed in a moderate narrow space consisted of two horizontal plates.The main difference between this process and the conventional unconfined pool boilillg is the liquidsupply mechanism which is absolutely prevented by the growth of coalescence bubble along with theheated surface in the narrow space. As a result, the macrolayer becomes thinner due to the evaportion of the individual bubbles within the macrolayer during the period of bubble coalescence, with orwithout dryout that depends on both the gap size of narrow space and the size of heated surface. Fora specified size of the heated surface, the initial thickness of the liquid layer has a critical value whichapproaches a constant while the space height is larger than a critical value. The individual bubblebehaviors and tlie heat transfer can be considered as the same as that in the unconfined pool boiling, ifthe space gap is large. However, the individual bubbles do not generate in the last period of the bubblecoalescence and a lower maximum heat fiux will be resulted if the space gap is reduced. In such a case,the macrolayer is dryout.