Estudo da influência da granulometria no comportamento reológico de polpa de bauxita e no fator de atrito

Abstract

This paper presents studies of the rheological characterization and determination of friction factors in three bauxite slurries originating in Miltonia Mine, Paragominas - Para, resulting from operating conditions with different degrees of grinding. Thus, the basic difference between them lies in the size distribution. The goal is to make a proposal to revise the specification of the product particle size (for the bauxite slurry pipeline), allowing a comparison with the slurries of the project (pilot plant) and the current operation (processing plant) and the response to changes, especially, viscosity and friction factors. The slurry proposal incorporates a higher percentage of fines (<10 microns) compared with other slurries. The benefits can earn recovery with the incorporation of this portion of fines, which currently is discarded to the tailings pond. The material was characterized by size analysis of the series Tyler, physical and physical-chemical, electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray spectrometry energy dispersive (EDS). Testes were conducted in coaxial cylinder viscometer, Searle type, in order to determine the rheological behavior of these slurries, depending on the size distribution and varying the concentration of solids. The rheological properties were measured viscosity, yield stress and also behaviors that show the dependence of viscosity with the time of application of a constant shear rate, verifying through the hysteresis curve, the presence or absence of thixotropy and reopexia. The experimental results showed that for the slurries tested, the particle size and solids concentration are important parameters in determining the viscosity. Tests with these three bauxite slurries of different sizes, were performed at predetermined concentrations, to determine the model whose rheological parameters showed the best correlation coefficients (R2), and the best fits were found using the Herschel-Bulkley model. The friction factors were obtained for formulations involving a logarithmic relationship, using the Law of the Wall as a method of obtaining these expressions apply to non-Newtonian viscoplastic fluid, and compared with those calculated by Dodge and Metzner correlation and found that in general there is agreement between the model studied in the three slurries. The factor analysis of friction in the concentration of 50% solids, which is the concentration of pumping by pipeline, shows that the behavior of the slurries studied is similar, with the best settings for the range from 10,000 to 100,000 Reynolds (average work range for the turbulent flow of the ore pulp, homogeneous and heterogeneous).