Experimental study on the overall settling behavior of copper tailings suspension
Yuan Li, Dirk van Zyl
Abstract
This study primarily focuses on using experimental approaches to investigate the overall settling behaviors of different types of copper tailings. With a specially designed experimental apparatus, a series of interruptive batch settling tests were carried out to collect samples during the ongoing batch settling test. After measuring the solids content and particle size distribution (PSD) of these samples, the segregation and settling behaviors of the suspension can be interpreted from the experimental results. This paper highlights that the combined effect of the initial solids content and PSD demonstrates a remarkable influence on the segregation of coarse particles, leading to various settling behaviors. Notably, changing the initial solids content and PSD conditions can result in completely different settling modes.