Abstract:Since the copper slag produced by the current copper smelting process has a relatively high copper content, the traditional electric furnace depletion technology takes a long time to separate copper droplets and has a low recovery rate. Therefore, the super gravity technology was introduced to improve the depletion process. The numerical simulation method was adopted, based on the horizontal centrifuge model, and converter copper slag was selected as the experimental object for research. A model was constructed with COMSOL Multiphysics software to simulate the settling process of copper droplets in copper slag. Based on the calculation results, the effects of gravity coefficient (G) and temperature (T) on the settling behavior of copper droplets with different particle sizes were analyzed. The results show that under the conditions of T=1 300 ℃ and G=1, copper droplets with a particle size below 80 μm cannot settle freely; At constant temperature, the increase in gravity coefficient and copper droplet size is beneficial to the settlement of copper droplets in copper slag; Rising temperature will reduce the viscosity of copper slag and copper, and promote the separation of the two. Finally, based on the settlement data of copper droplets, the optimization suggestions for industrial parameters such as centrifuge radius and feeding speed were put forward to improve copper recovery rate and reduce the production costs of enterprise.