CFD study on the influences of size distribution and density of magnetite ore particles on hydrocyclone classification process

Due to the presence of gangue minerals in iron ore, the feed of hydrocyclone in the grinding circuit is a mixture of particles with different densities and sizes. In this study, numerical experiments are performed to investigate the classification characteristics of magnetite ore particles. A significant difference in recovery to underflow of intermediate-sized particles is found due to density effect. By increasing the feed d0.5, the cut size, Ep value, solid concentration and yield of underflow present an increasing trend. Density effect coefficient is proposed and its extreme values are obtained for intermediate-sized particles. Q/M ratio has smaller influences on classification than feed d0.5. The air core diameter, turbulence intensity, equilibrium radius and particle trajectory are analyzed to reveal the migration mechanism of the magnetite and gangue particles under different feed d0.5 and Q/M ratios. This work clarifies the intrinsic classification characteristic of magnetite ore particles.