Influence of flotation cell hydrodynamics on the flotation kinetics and scale up, Part 2: Introducing turbulence parameters to improve predictions

The AMIRA P9 model has floatability (P) as the ore property which is considered to remain constant in different flotation cell sizes under different hydrodynamic conditions. However, in this study increasing the power input increased the P value, especially in finer particle size classes (below 75 μm). Acceptable explanations for the floatability variations, as a result of hydrodynamic condition variations in the flotation cells, have been sought by looking at the literature and the results obtained in this study were published in part one of this manuscript. To improve the accuracy of the AMIRA P9 flotation model in predicting flotation rate constant (k) and to improve the consistency of ore property, measurable and appropriate turbulence parameters were sought to be incorporated into the model. Therefore, two dimensionless turbulence parameters æ and EVF, derived from practical measurements, were formulated and introduced to the AMIRA P9 model. The modified ore floatability parameter, P″, was demonstrated to be a more consistent characterisation of the ore property than P and both the accuracy and precision of the k prediction improved for a variety of hydrodynamic conditions of flotation cells.