Influence of spiral concentrator structure and process parameters on the stability of sorting fluids

The spiral concentrator is a common fluid film type gravity separation tool, the primary variables influencing the fluid’s stability throughout the spiral concentrator sorting minerals process are its diameter, feed flow, viscosity, and the pitch-to-diameter ratio. This study uses numerical simulation approaches to examine how the aforementioned parameters affect stability of the spiral sorting fluid and fluid flow pattern. The findings indicate that as the diameter increases, the maximum tangential flow velocity at the spiral groove’s outer edge tends to increase. The pitch-to-diameter ratio increases, the flow film thickness and velocity at the outer edge tend to increase, the laminar flow region expands, but the value of Froude in the groove increases significantly and the fluid stability decreases. With an increase in flow rate, the flow velocity and spiral groove flow film thickness tend to increase, the outer edge’s Reynolds number tends to increase, and the Froude number tends to increase before decreasing. Viscosity increases, the sorting fluid’s Reynolds number and Froude number both exhibit a decreasing trend, it will be more stable to sort fluids.