In recent decades, the exponential increase in the cell volume of flotation cells has promoted significant advantages, such as those related to investment costs, footprints, and energy savings. In larger cells, the diameter/height ratios and froth transport distances increase. Thus, the use of froth crowders and internal launders becomes compulsory for maintaining froth transport distances while decreasing the ratio between the gas and collected mineral flow rates. Consequently, the bubble load will increase until reaching a critical bubble surface coverage.

In this paper, the concentrate carrying rate (tph/m²) was described in terms of the bubble surface coverage (bubble loading) at the pulp-froth interface and the froth recovery (froth transport) and was evaluated as a function of the cell volume and operating variables. A sensitivity analysis based on industrial operating and design conditions, such as the superficial gas rate, particle size, froth cross-sectional area and cell volume, was developed to evaluate the metallurgical performance of cells with volumes ranging from 100 to 630 m³.

The results show that carrying rate limitations can arise for the whole range of cell volumes depending on the critical operating conditions, particularly for the first rougher cells and in the cleaning stages of industrial flotation circuits. An increase in cell volume consistently increases the bubble loading (bubble surface coverage) under all conditions, approaching the limiting conditions more rapidly for cells without internal launders. Otherwise, the limiting condition was achieved when the particle size D_PS decreased from 50 to 20 µm and for two separate conditions of superficial gas rate: high (much higher than 1 cm/s) and low (much lower than 1 cm/s). The minimum bubble surface coverage was observed around J_G = 1 cm/s, which corresponds to the maximum bubble surface area flux, independent of the cell size.

The use of internal launders increases the range of operating conditions without exceeding the maximum bubble loading.

近几十年来，浮选池体积的指数级增长带来了显着的优势，例如与投资成本、占地面积和节能相关的优势。在较大的细胞中，直径/高度比和泡沫传输距离增加。因此，为了保持泡沫运输距离，同时降低气体和收集的矿物流量之间的比率，必须使用泡沫挤压机和内部洗涤槽。因此，气泡负载将增加，直到达到临界气泡表面覆盖率。

在本文中，浓缩物携带率 (tph/m ² ) 是根据纸浆-泡沫界面处的气泡表面覆盖率（气泡负载）和泡沫回收率（泡沫传输）来描述的，并作为电池的函数进行评估体积和操作变量。基于工业操作和设计条件，如表观气体速率、颗粒尺寸、泡沫横截面积和电池体积，开发了一种敏感性分析，以评估体积从 100 到 630 m ³的电池的冶金性能。

结果表明，根据关键操作条件，整个池体积范围内可能会出现承载率限制，特别是对于第一个较粗的池和工业浮选回路的清洁阶段。在所有条件下，细胞体积的增加都会持续增加气泡负载（气泡表面覆盖率），从而更快地接近没有内部流槽的细胞的极限条件。否则，当粒径 D _PS从 50 µm 减小到 20 µm 时达到限制条件，并且对于表观气体速率的两个单独条件：高（远高于 1 cm/s）和低（远低于 1 cm/s） . _{在 J G}附近观察到最小的气泡表面覆盖率 = 1 cm/s，对应于最大气泡表面积通量，与细胞大小无关。

内部洗涤槽的使用增加了操作条件的范围，而不会超过最大气泡装载量。