Undergraduate Thesis of Camilo Mejías
 | Career | Mathematical Civil Engineering, Universidad de Concepción |
|---|---|---|
| Enrollment Year | 2008 | |
| Senior Year | 2015 | |
| Thesis Title | Identification of the Flow Density Function by Measurement of Suspension Settlement Curves and Numerical Simulation of Continuous Sedimentation | |
Thesis Summary:Thickening is a very important process, both in the mining (copper) industry and in the treatment of wastewater, because it is dedicated to the recovery of water, to be reused or to return to bodies of water. To model the sedimentation inside a thickener it is necessary to find a flow function fb through laboratory batch tests. There are two methods, one parametric global, which given some a priori curves of fb(_), adjusts parameters Through a sedimentation profile h(t). This method is the most used today, however it is subject to sensitivity errors. Another method is a closed local estimation, that is, through a sedimentation profile h(t), a closed algebraic formula of the flow function fb(_) is found. This method is necessary if an analytical form of the sedimentation profile is known. Since this is not possible, since they are experimental measurements, a least squares adjustment of this cloud of points is made and then the aforementioned algebraic form is applied. The sensitivity error in this case is drastically reduced because the parameter setting is performed in the same space, more so if The adjustment is made by subintervals. In this paper we validate the theory of a fb construct through the local method using own experimental data and data obtained from the literature. In addition we deliver some criteria and reconstructions in case of not being able to carry out the Diehl test, which is difficult to implement. Subsequently, a numerical method is given to implement a continuous sedimentation simulator, which supports a chunk reconstructed flow function (by subintervals) as previously estimated and numerical examples are shown. Finally, documentation of three thickening tests with final copper tail material is given to be treated in future methods for validation. It should be noted that the results are very favorable for ideal samples in different materials, in addition, the implementation of the simulator may admit in some future online software for the industry, because the input parameters are data that correspond to the operation of the day a Day of a thickener. | ||
| Thesis Director(s) | Fernando Betancourt, Raimund Bürger | |
| Thesis Project Approval Date | 2013, March 08 | |
| Thesis Defense Date | 2015, March 12 | |
| Professional Monitoring | To continue his studies on the PhD program in Applied Sciences with mention in Mathematical Engineering | |
| PDF Tesis | Download Thesis PDF  | |
ISI Publications from the ThesisFernando BETANCOURT, Raimund BüRGER, Stefan DIEHL, Camilo MEJíAS: Advance methods of flux identification for Clarifier-Thickener simulation models. Minerals Engineering, vol. 63, pp. 2-15, (2014). |
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