STATISTICAL DESIGN APPLICATION AND ANALYSIS OF SEPARATION EFFICIENCY IN DAVIS TUBE TESTER

Abstract

Wet low intensity magnetic separation studies for a synthetic binary mixture of magnetite and quartz were carried out. The variables studied were particle size, magnetic field intensity, and wash water rate. Experiments were carried out using 2 3 full factorial designs. The main and interaction effects on the separation efficiency were evaluated using Yates' analysis. The optimum magnetic separation conditions were calculated by the method of steepest ascent. A concentrate with 98.9% magnetite at 87.2% component recovery and 86.3% separation efficiency was obtained at following optimum conditions: 200 µm particle size, 3190 Gauss magnetic field intensity, and 402 cm 3 /min wash water rate.