B. K. Gorain's research while affiliated with The University of Queensland and other places

Publications (9)

Article
Full-text available
A flotation model developed at the Julius Kruttschnitt Mineral Research Centre was used to predict the performance of copper rougher and scavenger circuits at the copper concentrator at Mount Isa Mines. The model describes the kinetic response of an ore in a flotation cell in terms of ore floatability, cell characteristics and froth recovery. The f...
Article
In the operation of mechanical flotation cells, the dispersion of gas into fine bubbles may be expressed by three indicators : bubble size, gas holdup and superficial gas velocity. Taken together, these properties determine the bubble surface area flux (Sb) in the cell, which has been found to have a strong correlation with the flotation rate const...
Article
Previous studies by the authors have shown that there is a strong correlation between the overall flotation rate constant k and the bubble surface area flux, Sb, in a flotation cell, and that this relationship is independent of impeller type. More recently it was found that results obtained from a 250 litre cell and a 3 m3 cell treating the same fe...
Article
A previous investigation carried out by the authors at the Hellyer concentrator, using a 3 m3 cell fitted with four different impellers treating plant zinc cleaner feed ore, suggested a linear correlation between flotation rate constant k and bubble surface area flux Sb. The relationship between k and Sb was found to be independent of impeller type...
Article
The metallurgical performance of a 2.8m3 portable industrial scale flotation cell was measured when treating zinc cleaner feed at Hellyer concentrator in Tasmania, Australia. The cell was fitted in turn with four different impeller-stator systems and operated over a wide range of air flow rates and impeller speeds. Bubble size, gas holdup and super...
Article
Superficial gas velocity was measured at different locations in a 2.8 m3 portable industrial scale sub-aeration flotation cell, treating zinc cleaner feed at Hellyer Concentrator in Tasmania, Australia. The cell was fitted in turn with four different impeller-stator systems, and operated over a range of air flow rates and impeller speeds. Superfici...
Article
Gas holdup was measured at different locations in a 2.8 m3 portable industrial scale subaeration flotation cell, treating zinc cleaner feed at Hellyer Concentrator in Tasmania, Australia. The cell was fitted in turn with four different impeller-stator systems, and operated over a range of air flow rates and impeller speeds. The gas holdup was found...
Article
Bubble size distributions were measured at different locations in a 2.8 m3 portable industrial scale sub-aeration flotation cell, treating zinc cleaner feed in the Hellyer Concentrator in Tasmania, Australia. The cell was fitted in turn with four different impeller-stator systems, and operated over a range of air flow rates and impeller speeds. The...

Citations

... The recovery rate of flotation in the pulp is greatly affected by turbulence since it affects solid suspension, air dispersion and particle bubble collision, attachment and detachment (Fallenius, 1987; Schubert, 1999). Also flotation cell scale up needs to consider the turbulence distribution (Gorain et al., 1997a). Therefore it is very important to study turbulence characteristics in flotation cells. ...
... Sensors and techniques for off-line measurement of these variables in laboratory and industrial machines have been developed and demonstrated [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. Although gas dispersion measurements have been successfully used to diagnose the operation and performance of laboratory and industrial units [11,12], applications driving machine operation and circuit optimization efforts have not occurred because on-line techniques for measuring bubble size and gas holdup are unavailable. ...
... On the other hand, excessive bubble coarsening can compromise the recovery and throughput. Gorain et al. (1998) found that froth phase recovery (R f ) decreases exponentially with the bubble residence time (τ) in a froth phase, and derived the following relationship, ...
... Sensors and techniques for off-line measurement of these variables in laboratory and industrial machines have been developed and demonstrated [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. Although gas dispersion measurements have been successfully used to diagnose the operation and performance of laboratory and industrial units [11,12], applications driving machine operation and circuit optimization efforts have not occurred because on-line techniques for measuring bubble size and gas holdup are unavailable. ...
... where θ 0 is intercept at zero froth height and θ 1 is the gradient of the flotation rate constant versus froth height plot. Froth recovery is another important parameter affecting the flotation rate constant [24], which depends on froth half-life time, as per Equation (11) [25]: ...
... The basics of the gas dispersion measurements of bubble size, gas rate, and gas holdup have been known and utilized on a limited basis for some time, particularly since the publications of Gorain et al. [10]. With the development of the CRIST sensors, the quantity and quality of the information obtained have increased dramatically, to an extent where data can now be obtained almost simultaneously for entire banks of flotation cells. ...
... Sensors and techniques for off-line measurement of these variables in laboratory and industrial machines have been developed and demonstrated [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. Although gas dispersion measurements have been successfully used to diagnose the operation and performance of laboratory and industrial units [11,12], applications driving machine operation and circuit optimization efforts have not occurred because on-line techniques for measuring bubble size and gas holdup are unavailable. ...
... According to realization approach, flotation models can be categorized into first-principle models, soft-computing-based models, and empirical models (Lynch et al., 1981;Savassi et al., 1998;Gorain et al., 1999;Tsatouhas et al., 2006;MMcCoy and AuretcCoy and Auret, 2019;Neethling et al., 2019). Bascur (1982) proposed a phenomenological model based on the population balance method and the hydraulic model describing the water behavior of the flotation cell. ...
... The current use of particle data in the modelling of flotation kinetics is also still insufficient to understand the full complexity of the process. This is so, because much critical information contained in particle datasets is lost during the extensive data compression steps necessary for the application of current methods (e.g., particle grouping/binning and variable selection) (Gorain et al., 2000;Lamberg and Vianna, 2007;Lotter et al., 2011;Jameson, 2012;Hoang et al., 2018). ...