This study presents the concept of an economic in situ light-scattering sensor for real-time measurement of the solid content in tailings facilities. An experimental setup using a blue (405 nm wavelength) laser diode and silicon photodiodes was constructed to measure the angular distribution of the intensity of scattered light. It was found that the angular intensity of scattered light for tailing samples follows a cosⁿ(θ) relation with n ≈ 1.5, where θ is the angle between the laser beam and the photodiode. An angular value of θ = 20° was chosen for the sensor design based on a high signal-to-noise ratio. The setup was used to determine the relation between scattered light intensity and solids content using a thickened tailings underflow from an oil sands facility and Kaolin as a model material. It was observed that the intensity of scattered light tends to increase with an increase in solids content, with qualitatively similar settling behavior for the two materials but at largely different time scales. An insertion-based prototype was built and tested in a large (2.7 m height) settling column with treated mature fine tailings, and the light-scattering data were verified by standard gravimetric method and gamma-ray measurements. In general, good agreement was established between these measurements in the absence of optical fouling, which demonstrates the potential of the sensor as an effective tool for tailings management.

中文翻译：

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一种用于尾矿固体测量的实时光散射技术

本研究提出了一种经济的原位光散射传感器的概念，用于实时测量尾矿设施中的固体含量。构建了使用蓝色（405 nm 波长）激光二极管和硅光电二极管的实验装置来测量散射光强度的角分布。发现拖尾样品的散射光角强度与n遵循 cos ⁿ (θ) 关系 ≈1.5，其中θ是激光束和光电二极管之间的角度。基于高信噪比，为传感器设计选择了 θ = 20° 的角度值。使用油砂设施中的增稠尾矿底流和高岭土作为模型材料，使用该装置确定散射光强度与固体含量之间的关系。据观察，散射光的强度往往随着固体含量的增加而增加，两种材料的沉降行为定性相似，但时间尺度大不相同。在大型（2.7 m 高）沉降柱中建造并测试了一个基于插入的原型，该沉降柱具有经过处理的成熟细尾矿，并且通过标准重量法和伽马射线测量验证了光散射数据。一般来说，