Study of the rheological characteristics of copper tailings and calculation of resistance in pipeline transportation

Rheological characteristics are fundamental to pipeline system design. Rheological tests were conducted to obtain the yield stress and viscosity index at different mass fractions. Slump tests were conducted to investigate the mobility of tailings slurry. Results show that the yield stress increases with the increase of mass fraction, especially when mass fraction is greater than 70%. After stirring in a high-speed activation stirrer, the yield stress in 70% mass fraction is decreased by 40.9%. When the mass fractions are lower than 74%, high slump values are obtained. Based on the basic parameters obtained in the rheological tests, the key parameters of the pipeline system were calculated, including the critical flow rate and frictional resistance loss. These analyses results could serve as references for pipeline system design.