Control of pulp levels in flotation cells

The control of pulp levels in flotation cells is a complex control task. Many different aspects such as cell structure and valve sizing, and their effects on control, have to be taken into account. Control becomes more and more difficult as the complexity of the cell configurations and the number of cells used in configuration increase. In this paper the mathematical model of a flotation cell is first developed and several configurations of cells are constructed. Simulations are then performed in order to determine suitable control parameters for PI and feed-forward controllers of the cell levels. Finally, the effects of valve sizing and cell structure are presented and discussed.