EFFECTS OF ROTATION SPEED ON THE GAS-SOLID-LIQUID THREE-PHASE FLOW IN MECHANICAL FLOATATION CELL

In order to analyze the effect of rotation speed of impeller on the inner flow and floatation dynamic characters of mechanical floatation, a kind of floatation is investigated. The gas-solid-liquid three-phase three-dimensional turbulent flow fields are analyzed numerically with the Mixture multi-phase model, K-epsilon turbulent model and Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes equations. The void fraction test result of physical prototype is given with different rotation speeds. The simulation results show that the rotation speed of impeller has the important influence on the circle type of fluid, void fraction and speed distribution in the floatation with the same pressure of gas inlet. The experimental results show that the gas-solid-liquid three-phase flow fields with the design rotation speed is well with the floatation dynamic environment in the floatation, which also shows the importance of rotation speed of the impeller for the performance of the mechanical and pneumatic flotation.