Minerals Engineering 22 (2009) 944950

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

Numerical modelling of non-Newtonian slurry in a mechanical otation cell

C.W. Bakker a,*, C.J. Meyer b, D.A. Deglon a
a
b

Centre for Minerals Research, Dept. of Chemical Engineering, University of Cape Town, 7701, Rondebosch, Cape Town, South Africa
Centre for Research in Computational and Applied Mechanics, University of Cape Town, 7701, Rondebosch, Cape Town, South Africa

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 5 December 2008
Accepted 21 March 2009
Available online 25 April 2009
Keywords:
Modelling
Computational uid dynamics
Froth otation
Fine particle processing
Agitation

a b s t r a c t
Certain mineral slurries used in the minerals processing industry have been shown to exhibit non-Newtonian rheologies, particularly with ner particle sizes and at higher solid concentrations. Research has
also shown that a cavern containing yielded uid surrounded by stagnant uid form around the impeller
during the agitation of non-Newtonian uids exhibiting yield stresses, and this is therefore hypothesised
to occur inside mechanical otation cells which may adversely affect uid hydrodynamics. A single phase
non-Newtonian uids was modelled using CFD, using the HerschelBulkley non-Newtonian model with
constants derived from experimentally determined Bindura nickel ore slurry, known to be rheologically
complex due to the presence of brous mineral types, such as serpentine. The modelling methodology
was rst validated against published experimental results in a stirred tank, and results were experimentally validated using piezoelectric pressure transducers to measure the magnitude of pressure uctuations due to the uid velocity in order to dene the cavern boundary. Both experimental and
numerical ndings show that a cavern forms around the stator, with its size depending on slurry yield
stress. It was also found that the shearstress transport (SST) kx turbulence model predicted the cavern
boundary most accurately.
2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The mixing of non-Newtonian uids, which are found in a wide
range of industries, is poorly understood due to the often high
apparent viscosities, complex changes in rheology during agitation,
and the fact that many also exhibit a yield stress that needs to be
overcome for the uid to ow. Certain liquidsolid mineral slurry
suspensions used in otation cells in the minerals processing
industry are one such example of these types of uids. Various
researchers have found that these slurries exhibit different rheological behaviours depending on their physical and chemical characteristics such as particle type, particle size, solids concentration
and pulp chemistry (Prestidge, 1997; Tseng and Chen, 2003; He
et al., 2006).
Due to the preferential use of high quality ores in the past, mining operations are having to process more complex, nely disseminated ore bodies, and in order to do this ores are having to be
ground to ever ner particle sizes, and this therefore increases
the non-Newtonian nature of the slurries. Solids concentrations
are also being increased in order to reduce water consumption, further increasing the slurries non-Newtonian nature. Until recently,
however, researchers have modelled all mineral slurries as Newtonian uids when, in many cases, they may not be. One such case

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +27 21 650 3817.

E-mail address: bkkcas001@uct.ac.za (C.W. Bakker).
0892-6875/$ - see front matter 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.mineng.2009.03.016

where this may have a large effect is in mechanical otation cells,

where the change in rheology affects the hydrodynamics within
the cell. This in turn can affect the various subprocesses necessary
for efcient otation, such as gas dispersion, particle suspension,
bubbleparticle collision, attachment and detachment in the cell.
In order to fully understand the effects of slurry rheology on the local hydrodynamics, a detailed knowledge of local variables in the
ow eld are required. Most experimental methods need optically
clear uids or low solid concentrations and low velocities (Boyer
et al., 2002), however mineral slurries are inherently opaque with
relatively high solid concentrations and high uid velocities.
There have been various experimental studies conducted into
the effects of non-Newtonian uids on the hydrodynamics inside
stirred tanks, but only using either optically clear uids or low uid
velocities due to the constraints of most experimental techniques
such as PIV or LDV. It has been found that stirred tanks containing
yield stress uids form a region of yielded uid, or cavern, moving
in a predominantly tangential direction around the impeller, while
the rest of the uid remains stagnant (Elson and Cheeseman, 1986;
Moore et al., 1995; Wilkens et al., 2005). There has been little research into the numerical modelling of cavern formation in stirred
tanks however (Adams and Barigou, 2007; Arratia et al., 2006), and
although there has been research on modelling of mechanical otation cells (Koh et al., 2003; Koh and Schwartz, 2006), no-one has
modelled non-Newtonian uids in mechanical otation cells. This
research has therefore been undertaken to study the effect of the

C.W. Bakker et al. / Minerals Engineering 22 (2009) 944950

rheology of slurries on the ow dynamics inside mechanical otation cells, and the potential formation of caverns around the impeller. This was done using the commercial CFD package Fluent 6.3 as
a peer methodology in the absence of suitable experimental techniques. In order to validate the modelling methodology, the ow
inside a tank stirred by a pitch-blade turbine (PBT) was predicted
and compared to published experimental results by Adams and
Barigou, 2007. Adams and Barigou conducted experimental tests
on the PBT at various impeller speeds, and visualised the ow
using Planar Laser Induced Fluorescence (PLIF), presenting results
of the cavern boundary position at each impeller speed. They also
compared their experimental results to CFD simulations, but since
only laminar simulations were conducted, accurate predictions
were only obtained at low speeds where the ow was still in the
laminar regime. The methodology developed was then used to
model the more complex mechanical otation cell. The predicted
results were validated using experimental measurements. These
were in the form of cavern boundary positions obtained using
measurements of the magnitude of pressure uctuations in an
experimental pilot scale otation cell containing mineral slurry,
from which the the movement of the slurry, and therefore the size
of the cavern, could be determined.
2. Model description
2.1. Experimental geometry
This study was conducted on a 100l pilot scale Bateman otation cell (Fig. 1), with diameter, T 540 mm, and liquid depth,
Z 445 mm, which consists of a 6 bladed impeller of maximum
diameter, D 150 mm, tapering down to 70 mm at the lower edge,
and height W 100 mm. This was surrounded by a ring of 16 stator blades of 70 mm by 36 mm attached to a 250 mm diameter stator disc. The impeller bottom clearance was C b 83 mm.
The modelling methodology was rst validated by modelling a
simple impeller driven stirred tank as used in both experimental
and numerical studies by Adams and Barigou (2007). This consisted of a tank with T 148 mm, with four bafes of width
0:1 T, and agitated by a 6 bladed 45 down-pumping pitch-blade
turbine (PBT). The diameter of the impeller, D T=3, and the offbottom clearance equalled T=3. For both models, the impeller

Fig. 1. Flotation cell setup.

945

and stator blades, as well as the bafes, were modelled as innitely

thin walls.
2.2. Fluid rheology
2.2.1. PBT
Adams and Barigou (2007) used a viscoplastic 0.1 wt% carbopol
940 solution that exhibited a yield stress. The relationship between
the shear stress s and the shear rate was best described using the
HerschelBulkley non-Newtonian model Eq. (1).

s sy kc_ n
and since viscosity,

l s=c_

s
l _y kc_ n1
c

Eq. (2) has a discontinuity at c_ 0 and as a result a piecewise

equation needs to be used which sets a constant very high yielding
viscosity for shear rates below the yield stress Eq. (3), in order to
avoid division by zero, but to still make the uid act essentially like
a solid when not yielded.

l ly for 0 6 c_ 6 sy =ly

The HerschelBulkley model with a horizontal offset of sy =ly is

then used for shear rates corresponding to shear stresses higher
than the uids yield stress Eq. (4).

sy kc_ n  sy =ly n 
for c_ > sy =ly
c_

This means that only once the shear rate reaches a value of

sy =ly the ow is considered to have yielded. The values of the yield

stress sy , uid consistency coefcient k, and ow behaviour index
n, used for modelling the PBT were obtained from the literature
(Adams and Barigou, 2007). Five impeller speeds were investigated, ranging from 68 to 367 rpm. In order to obtain the corresponding Reynolds numbers Re qND2 =le , the effective
viscosity needed to be calculated. This was done using the MetznerOtto correlation Eq. (5).

c_ e ks N

where the constant ks is a value depending on the impeller size and

type, with a value of 11 used by Adams and Barigou (2007). An
effective viscosity was then calculated using Eq. (1) to calculate
Re. The speeds tested on the PBT therefore corresponded to
Re 7:3  163:2. The otation cell is run at signicantly higher
speeds than this, and therefore for methodology validation purposes only the results from the three highest PBT impeller speeds
were used for validation (191367 rpm, corresponding to
Re 70:3  163:2). It has been found that the ow in a PBT stirred
tanks changes from the laminar to transitional regime at approximately Re 10 (Paul et al., 2004), and these speeds are therefore
in the transitional regime. Although turbulence models using the
Boussinesq hypothesis are not designed to model transitional ow,
relatively accurate predictions were made modelling the ow as
turbulent, as shown later in the paper.
2.2.2. Flotation cell
Bindura nickel ore slurry was used in this research. It was chosen as it has complex rheological properties due to the presence of
brous mineral types, such as serpentine (Burdukova et al., 2008).
The ore was also ground to extremely ne particle sizes, with 50%
of particles passing 20 lm, and contacted with water containing a
high concentration of dissolved salts. This was done in order to
represent water used in actual industrial operations. Three different solid concentrations were modelled, namely, 40, 50 and

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C.W. Bakker et al. / Minerals Engineering 22 (2009) 944950

60 wt%, however rheological measurements were conducted down

to 25 wt%. These values were chosen since slurry solid concentrations of approximately 40 wt% are typical of many mineral processing operations, whereas slurries at 50 wt% represent the
upper bounds of current otation practice, although it is anticipated that higher solid concentrations will be more common in
the future due to pressures on reducing water consumption. The
rheology of the slurries were experimentally measured using a
Paar-Physica MCR 300 rheometer over a shear rate range of
0:11000 s1 . It was found that all slurries exhibited a yield stress
and had a shear thinning behaviour at low shear rates, which was
best described using the HerschelBulkley model as used when
modelling the PBT. At higher shear rates the gradient of the rheogram became constant, and therefore the slurry was modelled as a
Bingham plastic uid, using Eq. (1) but with n 1. This has also
been found in other research using limestone slurries (He et al.,
2006), and by Tseng and Chen (2003) in nickel powders dispersed
in terpineol solvent. Constants derived from tting the experimentally measured rheology to each non-Newtonian model are shown
in Tables 1 and 2. The solids concentration was assumed to be uniform throughout the cell at all impeller speeds. This is considered
reasonable due to the power intensity range used coupled with the
small size and brous mineralogy of particles, resulting in very low
settling rates.
When plotting the extrapolated Bingham yield stress against
solid concentration (Fig. 2a), the slurries show an exponential increase in Bingham yield stress. Similar ndings were indicated by
Prestidge (1997), however a power-law relationship between these
variables was found by He et al. (2006) and Tseng and Chen (2003).
It was found that the Bingham viscosity increased in an exponential manner with increasing solid concentration (Fig. 2b). This relationship was also found by Tseng and Chen (2003) and He et al.
(2006), and results from Prestidge (1997) indicate similar ndings.
2.3. Experimental validation
Experimental techniques for measuring local ow variables in
mineral slurries of high solid concentrations are extremely limited.
As a result it was decided to use a relatively simple method of measuring the dynamic pressure in the cell at various points in order to
ascertain whether the slurry is moving, and therefore to validate
the predicted cavern sizes. Eight Omega PX26-001DV piezoelectric
pressure transducers were xed inside a perspex rod in the same
orientation, but at different equally spaced heights. The rod, or
probe, was then inserted into the liquid with the transducer ports

Table 1
Densities and HerschelBulkley model parameters of slurry.

Bindura 40 wt%
Bindura 50 wt%
Bindura 50 wt%

Density
kg=m3

sy

k
kg=m s

(Pa)

1364
1500
1667

0.456
8.189
4.741

0.439
2.130
3.774

0.34
0.323
0.565

Fig. 2. Effect of solid concentration on (a) extrapolated Bingham yield stress and (b)
Bingham viscosity, with exponential t.

pointing in a tangential direction opposite to the impeller rotation

direction. Measurements of voltage due to the pressure were
amplied and captured on a PC over 20 s from all probes at a rate
of 1:25 kHz. This was then repeated at six equally spaced radial
positions. Due to the geometry of the otation cell and the size
of the probe, measurements could only be taken at radial positions
between the end of the stator disc and 3 cm from the tank wall. In
total, measurements were made at 31  6 points on the same radial plane in line with a stator blade in the cell. Mishra et al.
(1997) used a similar method to measure slurry velocity in pipe
ow. The voltage signal uctuated over time due to vortex shedding from the probe and turbulence, with the amplitude of these
uctuations proportional to the slurry velocity magnitude. The
standard deviation of the signal from the probe at each measurement point was therefore calculated and used as an indication of
the ow velocity magnitude. Due to slight noise in the system
and amplication of this noise, measurement points with a value
equal or less than 0.1% of the maximum standard deviation measured at each corresponding speed and solid concentration were
deemed to be outside the cavern.
3. CFD simulations
3.1. PBT

Table 2
Bingham plastic model parameters.

sy
Bindura 40 wt%
Bindura 50 wt%
Bindura 50 wt%

(Pa)

k
(kg/m s)

1.945
8.189
52.180

6:79  103
1:47  102
7:42  102

A fully three-dimensional mesh was used to model half the PBT

tank geometry, utilising the symmetry of the tank to reduce computational cost. Periodic boundary conditions were applied to the
cut planes. The mesh used to model the PBT consisted of a hybrid
tetrahedral/quadrilateral mesh of approximately 260 000 cells. An
unsteady sliding mesh was used to model the rotation of the
impeller, whereby a separate cell zone is dened around the impeller and this entire region is rotated. Although the steady-state multiple reference frame (MRF) model was also appropriate for this

C.W. Bakker et al. / Minerals Engineering 22 (2009) 944950

947

problem since there is an adequate gap between the impeller

blades and bafes for there to be no time dependent ow interaction (Aubin et al., 1994), it was not possible to use it for the otation cell geometry for reasons discussed in the next section. Since
the purpose of these simulations was to validate the methodology
used to model the otation cell, it was therefore decided to use the
more computationally expensive sliding mesh in all simulations.
Simulations took approximately 3 h per revolution using a Intel
Core2 Quad 2.4 GHz CPU with 8 GB of RAM.
The impeller region consisted of a cylindrical region around the
impeller 1.5 blade heights above and below the impeller, and a distance equal to the radius away from the impeller blades in the radial direction (Lee and Yianneskis, 1994). This region consisted of
approximately 90 000 unstructured tetrahedral cells, as can be
seen in Fig. 3. The full 360 mesh is however shown to improve
clarity. It was decided to use tetrahedral elements due to the complex geometry of the impeller. The rest of the tank contained
approximately 170 000 hexahedral cells. A non-conformal interface
was used to interpolate ow data between the two zones due to
the different cell types used in either zone. A symmetry boundary
was used to simulate the upper boundary representing the free
surface.
The working uid was represented as a single phase liquid of
using the HerschelBulkley non-Newtonian model included in Fluent, with constants from literature (Adams and Barigou, 2007). As
well as laminar simulations, two different RANS turbulence models
were investigated in this study, the standard k and shear
stress transport (SST) kx models. The latter model combines
the Wilcox kx turbulence model (Wilcox, 1998) and the standard
k model by using a blending function that activates the kx
model in the near wall region, and the k model away from the
walls.

As with the PBT, only half of the cell was modelled using a
three-dimensional mesh of 778 700 hexahedral cells, as is seen in
Fig. 4. Again, the full 360 mesh is shown to improve clarity. Grid
renement tests were conducted and it was found that there was
no appreciable difference in results predicted with ner meshes.
Due to the small gap between the stationary stator blades and
the rotating impeller (14 mm), the cylindrical rotating impeller region could only extend 7 mm beyond the impeller in the radial
direction, and because of the proximity of the stator disc above
the impeller, it could only extend above the impeller by 2.5 mm
and 48.5 mm below. This causes there to be a strong time dependent interaction between ow generated by the impeller and the
stator blades, which makes the geometry unsuitable for the steady-state MRF model (Tabor et al., 1996; Deglon and Meyer,
2006). It was also found that the MRF model underpredicted the
power draw of the cell, since it is dependent on the relative positioning between the impeller and stator blades. The unsteady sliding mesh method of modelling the impeller rotation was therefore
used. The MRF model was used however to provide initial conditions for the sliding mesh model in order to reduce computational
time. A time step corresponding to 0:5 of rotation was used to
achieve adequate convergence during the rst revolution. By viewing the coefcient of moment on the impeller blades, it was found
that the ow reached a quasi-steady state after two revolutions,
with the moment prediction on the impeller being periodic as
the blades moved past the stator blades. Simulations took approximately 10 h per revolution. It was also found that simulations of
the higher solid concentration slurry converged more rapidly due
to the higher apparent viscosity and therefore higher viscous
damping. The non-Newtonian slurry was modelled as a

Fig. 3. Mesh used to model PBT (270 000 mixed cells).

Fig. 4. Mesh used to model otation cell (652 000 hexahedral cells).

3.2. Flotation cell

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C.W. Bakker et al. / Minerals Engineering 22 (2009) 944950

single-phase uid of uniform rheology using a user-dened function to dene the viscosity as a function of c_ .

4. Results and discussion

4.1. PBT
The results of the PBT simulations were validated by comparing the position of the predicted cavern boundary to experimentally measured cavern boundary positions obtained from
literature (Adams and Barigou, 2007) using PLIF. It was found that
the predicted ow was sensitive to the value of ly chosen until
sy =ly was less than approximately 0:2s1 , after which there was
no change in the cavern predictions. Since sy ranges from 1.29
to 1.97 Pa, ly was set to 10 kg=m s. Adams and Barigou (2007) dened the yielded uid as the region of the tank where the tangential component of the velocity was less than 1% of the impeller tip
speed, and in a similar way, Arratia et al. (2006) dened the uid
as yielded in areas where the velocity magnitude was greater
than 5  104 ms1 . This research found that there was a substantial change in cavern size depending on the percentage of the
impeller tip speed used, with the cavern size never independent
of the percentage chosen due to the stagnant uid having a viscosity and therefore having a nite velocity. Therefore in order to
predict the cavern dimensions more accurately it was rather
decided to use an isosurface of strain rate equal to
sy =ly < 0:2 s1 to dene the boundary in order to remove any
dependence of the cavern size on the percentage of the impeller
tip speed used.
It was found that there was negligible difference between the
cavern predicted by laminar simulations, and that by the SST
kx turbulence model, with both giving an adequate prediction
of cavern shape. At the two lower speeds, the cavern size was
slightly overpredicted (Fig. 5a and b), and at the highest speed,
the cavern prediction is slightly lower than the experimental cavern boundary (5c). This difference could be attributed to slight
differences in experimental and numerical geometry, as well as
slight errors in both the experimental rheology and cavern
boundary measurement. It was found that the standard k model gave a slight overestimate of cavern size compared to the SST
kx model at the lowest, and therefore least turbulent impeller
speed. This is thought to be due to the fact that the k assumes
a fully developed turbulent ow, which is not the case in either
the PBT or otation cell. It is therefore deemed to be unsuitable
for this problem.
The low Reynolds numbers imply that the ow is predominantly laminar, with the maximum turbulent viscosity ratio
lt =l at the highest impeller speed being only in the order of
104 in areas of high shear, i.e. in the radial jet from the stator
blades. The fact that the cavern predictions using laminar simulations and the SST kx turbulence model are similar indicate that
this turbulence model is suitable to model ows in the low transitional ow regime. The kx model is also known to give better
predictions of free shear ows, such as radial jets (Wilcox, 1998),
and the ow produced by the impeller in the otation cell is a form
of free stream radial jet. For the PBT it would be less computationally expensive to only conduct laminar simulations, but the otation cell is run at higher Reynolds numbers, which would
possibly make it necessary to model the turbulence, and the SST
kx turbulence model was therefore used in all subsequent
simulations.
It should be noted that cavern sizes predicted at all speeds in
this research are in closer comparison to experimental results than
those predicted using laminar CFD simulations by Adams and Barigou (2007).

Fig. 5. Predicted cavern sizes compared to experimental results (Adams and

Barigou, 2007).  experimental;  predicted.

4.2. Flotation cell

As with the PBT, the predicted cavern was dened as an isosurface of c_ sy =ly . For 40 and 50 wt% slurries, ly was set to
10 kg=m s, as this corresponded to c_ < 0:2 s1 , but for the 60 wt%
slurry, ly was made to equal 40 kg=m s due to the high yield stress.
Investigations were conducted at impeller speeds of 300, 450 and
600 rpm. These speeds were chosen as they produce a range of
power intensity from approximately 0.6 to 5:6 kW=m3 , which
straddles the range of found in typical industrial mechanical otation cells (Deglon et al., 2000). When calculated using the effective
viscosity determined from Eq. (5) of the three solid concentrations
used in this study, these speeds correspond to Reynolds numbers
in the range of 25012540. It was found that the turbulent viscosity was far more signicant when modelling the otation cell, with
predictions of maximum turbulent viscosity ratio at the highest
speed and lowest slurry solid concentration reaching 68. Although
a cavern does not form at these conditions, this shows that the turbulence model has an effect on the ow eld, and is therefore necessary to accurately model this type of problem over a wide range
of conditions. Initially, the hydrodynamics of the otation cell containing pure water was modelled for comparison. Fig. 6 shows a
vertical cross-section through the cell containing pure water in line

C.W. Bakker et al. / Minerals Engineering 22 (2009) 944950

Fig. 6. Contours of velocity magnitude (m/s) on vertical cross-section in line with

stator blades through tank containing water (N = 450 rpm).

with a stator blade. It can be seen that movement occurs throughout the cell. The slurry leaves the impeller in a predominantly tangential direction, as in a conventional stirred tank, with no axial
ow component in the ow due to the solid stator disc above.
The ow is redirected by the stator blades to become predominantly radial, with periodic plumes forming from each of the 16
stator blades. These plumes then stagnate upon reaching the tank
wall, where the majority of the ow is redirected downward and
forms a vortex below the height of the stator disc, returning to
the impeller. Part of the ow forms a weak, yet large, circulation
pattern above the stator disc, reaching all the way to the free surface of the cell.
Simulations of ow in the cell containing non-Newtonian slurries are very different, as can be seen in Fig. 7, which shows velocity contours on a vertical cross-section through the cell containing
60 wt% Bindura nickel slurry in line with a stator blade at the same
impeller speed. The ow of slurry at the same impeller speed
shows highly restricted circulation in the top half of the cell due
to its yield stress. It was found that a cavern of yielded slurry
formed in this region, while above this the shear stress in the
remaining slurry was not high enough to overcome the yield stress,
and it therefore remained stagnant. The ow structure around the
impeller and in the radial jet leaving the stator ring remained similar to that in water.

Fig. 7. Contours of velocity magnitude (m/s) on vertical cross-section in line with

stator blades through tank containing 60 wt% Bindura nickel slurry (N = 450 rpm).

949

As with the PBT, the cavern boundary was dened as an isosurface of strain rate equal to sy =ly . It was found both experimentally
and numerically that caverns were only formed in 60 wt% slurry at
300 and 450 rpm, as well as to a far smaller degree in 50 wt% slurry
at 300 rpm. Although other combinations of solids concentration
and impeller speed showed considerable retardation of ow near
the free surface in the cell, the shear rate throughout the cell was
always above the value dened to be stagnant. As can be seen in
Fig. 8, there was close agreement between predicted and experimental cavern boundaries. Due to the nature of the measurement
technique, the experimental cavern boundary measurements only
consist of a cluster of points equal to 0.1% of the maximum value
measured in the radial plane, as explained earlier. Horizontal dotted lines are therefore shown to dene the maximum and minimum heights of the cavern. Vertical dotted lines show the limits
of the possible measurement positions due to physical constraints
in the radial direction. These lines therefore create an area in which
the cavern boundary passes through. Fig. 8a show that in 50 wt%
slurry at 300 rpm a cavern is predicted only in the far corner of
the cell, whereas experimental measurements show a cavern forming below the entire free surface, dropping near the tank wall.
Fig. 8b shows a large amount of scatter in experimental results
in 60 wt% slurry at 300 rpm. This is due to the amplied noise having an effect due to the low uid speeds. The predicted cavern is

Fig. 8. Predicted cavern sizes compared to experimental results. 

predicted; experimental. Horizontal dotted lines indicates limits of experimental cavern boundary. Vertical dotted lines show radial limits of measurement
positions.

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C.W. Bakker et al. / Minerals Engineering 22 (2009) 944950

however situated in the range of experimental cavern points. The

60 wt% slurry at 450 rpm (Fig. 8c) shows a very close correspondence between experimental and predicted results.
Despite the difculties and physical restrictions of the experimental measurements, the experimental points are in close proximity to the predictions. This, coupled with the methodology
validation using the PBT, give the authors condence in the results of the CFD simulations.They clearly demonstrate that at high
solid concentrations, a cavern will form which will adversely affect otation behaviour For example, under the conditions shown
in Figs. 6 and 7, almost all the slurry above the stator disc is moving at less than 0:37 m=s, or approximately 10% of the impeller
tip speed, and therefore does not effectively contribute to the
otation process.
5. Conclusions
CFD simulations were conducted in order to investigate the effects of non-Newtonian mineral slurry rheology on the hydrodynamics inside a mechanical otation cell. The modelling
methodology used was rst validated by modelling a pitch-blade
turbine agitated tank and comparing results against published
experimental cavern measurements. A pilot scale mechanical otation cell containing a non-Newtonian Bindura nickel slurry was
then modelled. The predicted ow in the otation cell was also
experimentally validated by using piezoelectric pressure sensors
to identify the cavern boundary in the otation cell.
It was possible to accurately predict both the shape and size of
the cavern formed by the pitch-blade turbine, and it was decided
that the SST kx turbulence model was more suitable to model
turbulence. It was also found to be most appropriate to use an isosurface of viscosity equal to the yielding viscosity to dene the cavern boundary, as long as the yielding viscosity was set high enough
to make the cavern size independent of this value. When modelling
the otation cell, it was found that the non-Newtonian nature of
the slurry produced considerably different ows when compared
to water at the same impeller speeds, and this difference was
amplied as the solid concentration increased. In the 60 wt% slurry
a cavern forms at the two lowest impeller speeds, with the majority of the ow localised into the region below the stator disc, and
the area of moving uid above the disc reduced due the yield
stress. The size of the cavern was found to be inversely proportional to the yield stress and viscosity, i.e. the ore type and solids
concentration of the slurry, but further research needs to be
conducted to nd the effect of each variable individually.
The predicted cavern sizes were also successfully validated
experimentally.
In conclusion, the ndings presented in this paper indicate
that the rheology of mineral slurries are affected by their solid

concentrations, which therefore has an impact on otation cell

hydrodynamics.
Acknowledgement
The authors would like to thank the Minerals to Metals SARChI
Chair for funding in this research.
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