Abstract:Tailing water containing a large number of impurities becomes a great threat to the environment and ecosystem, and the safe disposal of tailing water has always attracted much attention. High-efficiency flocculation sedimentation technology is an important means to treat tailing water. The flocculation effect of tailings is significantly affected by the physical properties of the tailings themselves. Taking granite tailings as an example, this study used the cylinder static sedimentation method to characterize the flocculation effect through sedimentation rate, turbidity of supernatant, thickness of sediment layer, and sediment quality, and studied the influence of physical properties of granite tailings on flocculation sedimentation performance. Meanwhile, based on the response surface method (RSM) for multi-factor experiments, the significant physical property factors and interactive effects affecting flocculation sedimentation were studied. Through the analysis of test data, the optimal flocculation conditions under different physical properties were explored. The test results show that the optimal dosage of polyacrylamide (PAM) and the feed concentration are positively correlated with the proportion of fine particles (-15 μm), and negatively correlated with the median particle size. The feed tailings concentration has the greatest influence on the flocculation sedimentation effect of tailings sand. Under the interaction of the three factors, the feed concentration and the proportion of fine particles (-15 μm) have the greatest influence on the flocculation sedimentation effect. The test results provide certain theoretical and practical references for the efficient flocculation sedimentation of fine-grained tailings.