Using Smooth Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) to model multiphase mineral processing systems

A characteristic of most minerals processing systems is that they are multi-phase. The Lagrangian nature of SPH means that it is well suited to modelling these systems as it can naturally track interfaces and free surfaces. In this paper we describe a massively parallel SPH simulator that we have developed and highlight some of the features that have been implemented. These features include surface tension and contact angles, two way coupled solid fluid-interactions and animated geometries. The capabilities of this simulator are illustrated by means of examples showing its ability to simulate a wide range of different minerals processing related systems including particle scale heap flow, multi-phase interactions in a sheared slurry and multi-phase mixing.