Fractal and microscopic quantitative characterization of unclassified tailings flocs

• 作者: Di Zheng Wei-dong Song Yu-ye Tan Shuai Cao Zi-long Yang Li-juan Sun
• 来源期刊: 矿物冶金与材料学报
• 年，卷（期）: 2021,（9）
• 页码范围: 1429-1439
• 页数: 11页
• 语种: 英文

摘要

A series of laboratory investigations are conducted to analyze the effect of flocculant type on the spatial morphology and micro-structural characteristics of flocs during the flocculation and settling of tailings. Four flocculant types (i.e., ZYZ, JYC-2, ZYD, and JYC-1) are considered in this study. The fractal characteristics and internal structures of tailings flocs with different flocculant types and settlement heights are analyzed by conducting scanning electron microscopy and X-ray micro-computed tomography scanning experiments based on the fractal theory. Results show that unclassified tailings flocs are irregular clusters with fractal characteristics, and the flocculation effect of the four floc-culant types has the following trend: ZYZ > JYC-2 > ZYD > JYC-1. The size and average grayscale value of tailings flocs decrease with the increase in settlement height. The average grayscale values at the top and bottom are 144 and 103, respectively. The settlement height remark-ably affects the pore distribution pattern, as reflected in the constructed three-dimensional pore model of tailings flocs. The top part of flocs has relatively good penetration, whereas the bottom part of flocs has mostly dispersed pores. The number of pores increases exponentially with the increase in settlement height. By contrast, the size of pores initially increases and subsequently decreases with the increase in settlement height.