To rationally select parameters for pipeline transportation of ultra-fine tailings slurry, the influencing factors of pipeline resistance in transportation were classified based on theoretical analysis. Effects of different factors on resistance loss in ultra-fine tailings slurry pipeline were investigated by adopting response surface methodology (RSM), and the significance of each factor was obtained, for which engineering verification test was performed then. The results show that those three internal influencing factors, such as slurry concentration, slurry temperature and cement-sand ratio, are in descending order of sensitivity, and the interactions among them, including interaction between concentration and temperature of slurry, interaction between slurry concentration and cement-sand ratio, interaction between cement-sand ratio and slurry temperature, are also in descending order of sensitivity; while the external factors, such as pipe diameter, flow rate and stowing gradient, and their interaction, including interaction between pipe diameter and inlet flow rate, interaction between pipe diameter and stowing gradient, interaction between inlet flow rate and stowing gradient, are also in descending order of sensitivity. The factor optimization results indicate that with fixed external factors, the optimal combination of slurry properties are as follows:slurry concentration of 63.5%, cement-sand ratio of 1∶6, and slurry temperature of 51.5 ℃; while with fixed internal factors, the optimal combination of transportation parameters are as follows:pipe diameter of 270 mm, inlet flow rate of 1.63 m/s, and stowing gradient of 5. Based on verification test, it is found that the maximum calculation deviations of the confidence interval under the influences of internal and external factors are 10.82% and 3.41%, respectively.

ultra-fine tailings  /  filling slurry  /  factor classification  /  response surface methodology  /  pipeline transportation  /  transportation resistance  /  resistance loss  /  engineering verification