Abstract

Tailings paste technology is more and more widely applied in underground paste filling, surface paste discharge area. The core of the tailings paste technology is how to prepare qualified paste which has good stability and liquidity. The definitions of qualified paste are divaricated both at home and abroad. Heretofore, there is no uniform definition. In this study, the unclassified tailings of a certain Lead-Zinc mine were configured into slurry at the concentration of 70~78% for the rheological experiment. Based on Herschel-Bulkley model regression, we obtain slurry rheological equation through the flow exponent n to evaluate whether qualified slurry paste. When the flow exponent n = 1, slurry for the Bingham plastic fluid, the qualification concentration of the paste is optimal and the range of 74~76% are the optimal mass concentration. This conclusion is consistent with the reality through a slump experimental validation. This study puts forward with the flow exponent n to determine the optimal quality of paste concentration method is feasible and has great applied value.

Keywords:

Herschel-bulkley model, optimum mass concentration, rheology, tailings disposal, unclassified tailings paste,

References

Competing interests

The authors have no competing interests.

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Copyright

The authors have no competing interests.