HYDRODYNAMIC STUDY OF TWO PHASE FLOW OF COLUMN FLOTATION USING ELECTRICAL RESISTANCE TOMOGRAPHY AND CFD TECHNIQUES

The distribution characteristics of mean gas hold-up and flow field were studied using electrical resistance tomography (ERT) and CFD model in column flotation. The effect of superficial gas velocity and different types of spargers on mean gas hold-up and its radial distribution has been analysed. Experimental results show ERT is suitable as an online monitoring tool to provide useful information on the hydrodynamic parameters of column flotation. The ERT technique facilitates non-invasive and nonintrusive visualization of different parameters in a column flotation. The tomography images, which were generated using a modified sensitivity back projection algorithm, were employed to explore the influence of parameters in two phase flow in column flotation. The mean gas hold-up values from ERT have been validated against pressure transducer data. The measured data is validated against the two-fluid model based CFD data and found them in close agreement