Effect of particle size distribution on flocculation and its growth in cement-ground limestone suspensions

The impact of particle size distribution on flocculation and its growth in cement-ground limestone suspensions was investigated by observing the flocculation states with a microscopic image analyzer and calculating the microscopic interparticle forces based on the multifractal methods and extended DLVO theory. The results showed that the particle size distribution exhibits a clear fractal feature and the flocculation and its growth have multifractal characteristics in cement-ground limestone suspensions. The spectral width, spectral difference and minimum fractal dimension of multifractal spectrum are used to depict the spatial arrangement, size distribution and average state of flocs, respectively. The multifractal spectrum of flocculation growth can be used to describe the growth of flocs. Compare with it, the multifractal spectrum of flocculation formation process has the advantages of integrity and simplification. When the fractal dimension of particle size distribution increases, the spectral width and spectral difference increase and the minimum fractal dimension decreases, which means that it is not beneficial to flocculation and flocculation growth. However, when it continues to increase, the opposite result appears because of the increase of effective distance ratio and interparticle force between particles. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.