Basic Separation
Summary
Basic Separation is a flexible empirical two-product separator. It provides an independent recovery-to-concentrate parameter for every component and particle-size class in the project mesh.
DPSIM model key: DPSIM.Concentration.BasicSeparator
Category: Concentration
Subcategory: Separators
Display name: Basic Separation
Streams
| Port | Role |
|---|---|
| Feed | Combined solids and water entering the separator. |
| Concentrate | Product stream receiving the specified component-by-size recoveries. |
| Tail | Complementary stream receiving unrecovered solids and remaining water. |
Parameters
| Parameter | Range | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Water to concentrate stream (%) | 0-100 | Current interface label for the concentrate water-setting parameter. In the implemented calculation, a positive value is used as the target concentrate solids percentage. |
| Component recover (%) size | 0-100 | Recovery to concentrate for the specified component and size class. |
Model Calculation
For each component c and size class i, the user specifies an independent partition value Rc,i. The output masses are:
mC,c,i = Rc,i mF,c,i
mT,c,i = (1 - Rc,i) mF,c,i
DPSIM sums the component masses in each class and normalizes them to obtain the concentrate and tail particle-size distributions. Component grades are calculated separately for every output size class. The reported mass recovery is the concentrate solids flow divided by feed solids flow.
Water split
For a positive setting interpreted as concentrate solids fraction, the model calculates the corresponding concentrate water flow and limits it to the water available in the feed. Tail receives the remaining water. At a setting of zero, the current implementation sends all feed water to concentrate.
Application and Limitations
Use Basic Separation when a complete component-by-size partition surface is available from survey reconciliation, laboratory tests or a calibrated external calculation. It can reproduce detailed separation behavior that cannot be represented by one recovery per component.
The model contains many parameters and does not predict them from equipment physics. Define the final project components and size mesh before entering the recovery table. Changing either structure can rebuild the component-related parameters and require the table to be reviewed again.
References
King, R. P. (2001). Modeling and Simulation of Mineral Processing Systems. Butterworth-Heinemann.
Wills, B. A., and Finch, J. A. (2016). Wills' Mineral Processing Technology, 8th ed. Butterworth-Heinemann.