Optimisation of parameters and ferrohydrostatic separation of materials

S. Jakabsky , M. Lovas , A. Mockovciakova , S. Hredzak

Institute of Geotechnics of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Watsonova 45, 043 53 Kosice, Slovak Republic

Abstract
The paper describes an automatic density controller for continual measurement and stabilization of the buoyant force (the ferrofluid density) and for separation tests of different materials. The controller of the ferrofluid density was designed on the base of bridge connection of tensometers with electronic processing and compensation of the resultant signal for temperature and drift. The separation tests in a FHS separator at application of various types of pole pieces were carried out under laboratory condition. The influence of various parameters such as the grain size of the charge, the height of feed over the ferrofluid level and the inclination angle of a separating channel on the separation efficiency was investigated. The optimum regime of the FHS separator equipped with various pole pieces was determined by a method of full factor planning. Tables 4, Figs 4, Refs 6.