Análise granulométrica fechada por sistemas numéricos

Abstract

Particle size analysis consists in determining the dimensions of the particles that make up the samples and in the statistical treatment of this information. It determines the distributions and efficiency of processes and relevant data for monitoring and controlling mineral processing. This research aimed to determine the percentage of particle size distribution of a phosphate ore sieving, within a confidence interval, taking advantage of the redundancy of data acquired from the process, using the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet editor software, a low-cost computer program difficulty of use. The method is based on solving independent linear equations, arising from the junction and separation points of the flows present in the circuit in this mineral processing process, through the numerical method of Gauss-Jacobi and Gauss Seidel, allowing the determination of the particle size distributions in each sieve. When analyzing systems of linear equations of size 2x2 to 4x4, the iterative numerical calculation methods of Gauss Jacobi and Gauss Seidel proved to be effective in calculating the roots of the equations, although for larger systems it is necessary to use computational methods to find the roots. It was concluded that the use of these methods is efficient in the treatment of process data from mineral processing, and the use of electronic spreadsheets was able to solve complex calculations and obtain efficient results.