Investigation of parameters and mechanism of ultrasound-assisted wet reclamation of waste sodium silicate sands

Abstract

In this paper, an ultrasound method was applied in the wet reclamation process, and the feasibility and parameters of the ultrasound-assisted wet reclamation were studied, and the mechanism of the ultrasonic solubilization was also analyzed. The effects of ultrasonic power, time, water consumption, and reclamation times on the de-skinning rate were systematically investigated. The results indicated that the ultrasonic-assisted wet reclamation of the waste sodium silicate sands was feasible. The ultrasonic mechanical effect, cavitation, and thermal effect could accelerate the dissolution of the sodium silicate and improve the de-skinning rate significantly. Orthogonal experiment analysis showed that increasing the ultrasonic power, prolonging the time as well as increasing the water consumption could improve the de-skinning rate. Under the condition of the low water consumption, the de-skinning rate of the ultrasound-assisted wet reclamation reached 90.58%, while the total water consumption was 0.9 t for 1 t of the waste sodium silicate sands.

Keywords:

• Ultrasound
• wet reclamation
• waste sodium silicate sands
• water consumption

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the supports provided by the National Nature Science Foundation of China, the Natural Science Foundation of Hubei Province, China and the Analytical and Testing Center, HUST.