Non-Newtonian thickened tailings slurry flow through open channels

Flow of non-Newtonian thickened tailings suspensions is experimentally studied. The testwork was carried out with typical mining tailings and kaolin suspensions of varying concentration in the laminar, transitional and turbulent regimes. The experimental investigation used a 100-mm wide and 4.8-m long rectangular channel which was geometrically and dynamically similar to a full-scale industrial channel. It is shown that, contrary to the previous findings, the critical Reynolds number, at which the flow conditions change from the laminar to transitional, can be as high as that for the Newtonian fluids (2000-3000). Nevertheless, the results still support the argument that with an increase in the apparent viscosity, the transitional flow emerges at lower Reynolds number. In addition, the current study experimental results along with previously published data-sets (Burger, 2014; Haldenwang and Slatter, 2006) are used to validate various open channel design models using combined Root-Sum-Square (RSS) values. © 2017 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.