An approach to determine settling properties of flocculated tailings suspensions based on a single batch settling test

Abstract

Determining the settling properties of flocculated suspensions is crucial in the design and optimization of thickeners. A novel method was proposed to predict the settling parameters of the Vesilind function. Such a method determines the maximum settling velocity by minimizing the difference between the predicted and measured batch settling curves. The performance of the method was compared with those of the differential evolution (DE) and Nelder-Mead (NM) algorithms. The results indicate that the method predicts the settling parameters with higher accuracy than the DE and NM algorithms do. Finally, the thickening process of flocculated tailings suspensions in batch settling tests was simulated. An increase in flocculant dosage causes an increase in compressive yield stress, leading to aggregate rarefaction. Consequently, the underflow concentration decreases at high solid fractions of suspensions as flocculant dosage increases.