Thixotropic behaviour of concentrated bauxite residue suspensions

Abstract

An experimental study on the time-dependent rheology of highly concentrated and flocculated suspensions of bauxite residue (red mud) is presented. Both the thixotropic breakdown with shear and recovery at rest have been quantitatively examined using a vane-shear instrument and a capillary rheometer. It is demonstrated that both the yield stress and the apparent viscosity of the material can be drastically reduced, by orders of magnitude, by shear-induced agitation with a simple anchor impeller. The rate of thixotropic decay is a function of solids concentration, agitation time and speed. With prolonged agitation, the flow properties are brought to an equilibrium level characterized by a finite yield stress and a shear rate-dependent (shear-thinning) viscosity. In the absence of shear, the yield stress gradually increases with time but at a rate considerably slower than the rate of decay in the shear field. Even after an extended rest period of several months, only a fraction of the initial yield stress can be regained. The observed behaviour has been interpreted in terms of a time-dependent but non-reversible transformation of a network structure of flocculated particles initially developed in the red mud. Using a structural kinetic approach, models have been developed for correlating the experimental kinetic data. The paper concludes with a discussion on the practical consequences of the work.