PHYSICOCHEMICAL PROBLEMS OF MINERAL PROCESSING, vol.47, pp.61-78, 2011 (SCI-Expanded)
The Jameson cell which is a new type of gas-liquid contacting device and can be considered as a type of plunging jet column, has been in use worldwide for the separation of fine minerals, coal particles and wastewater treatment etc. Flow characteristics in the downcomer of a Jameson cell are very important since the hydrodynamics of the cell is largely depends on the flow conditions. The hydrodynamics influences flow regimes in the downcomer and hence the gas holdup and bubble diameter are strongly affected by flow conditions. Depending on the air entrainment rate entered to the system, different flow regimes are observed in the downcomer. Bubbly flow which is observed at less air quantities is desired instead of churn-turbulent flow where the gas entrainment rate increase. In this research, the effect of operating conditions including nozzle diameter, downcomer diameter, jet velocity and jet length on gas entrainment rate, Qg, was evaluated experimentally for an air-water system for the bubbly and churn-turbulent flow. Between these factors, downcomer diameter was found to have very little effect on gas entrainment rate while increasing values of other factors had an increasing effect on it. The results were evaluated by forward stepwise linear regression (MLR) and a piecewise regression with Quasi-Newton estimation of breakpoint (PLR) to estimate the flow conditions and gas entrainment rates. The model by PLR was useful to understand the boundary of the flow characteristics since the two equations were valid in a certain air entrainment ranges, i.e. different flow conditions. The model developed was successful to determine the transition region from bubbly flow to churn-turbulent flow. Experimental data were in good agreement with theoretically predicted value.