Green mining of geo-resources is an inevitable demand for sustainable development of mining industry, filling mining method has become an indispensable effective means in the field of mining with the deep underground mining technology improving. The tailings flocculation and dewatering is the core of the filling mining method. The deep cone thickener is used to explore the flocculation and sedimentation law of the unclassified-tailings, which is the most advanced technology in the development of the unclassified-tailings thickening theory. The initial turbulent intensity and truss speed of the feeding well in the deep cone thickening process are the key factors affecting the size and settlement behavior of the unclassified tailing sand floe. The self-made intelligent continuous dense experimental platform was used to simulate the real sedimentation environment in the deep cone thickener. Combined with high-speed camera and particle tracking technology, the flocculation formation process in the feed well and the flocculation sedimentation process in the settling column were studied. The effects of initial turbulence intensity on floc size in feed wells (height 10 cm, cross-sectional diameters of 4, 5, 6 cm) were studied by using the MATLAB and ImageJ analysis software. The flocculation settlements under different shear environments were analyzed. The results show that the cross-section diameters of the feed wells were different under the conditions of solid flocculant unit consumption (20 g/t), feed concentration (10%) and solid flux (0.1~0.3 t/(h·m2)). At 4, 5, and 6 cm, the corresponding maximum initial turbulence intensity is 28.66%, 25.99% and 23.16%, respectively; the floc size increases first and then decreases with the increase of initial turbulence intensity; when the initial turbulence intensity is 25.99%, the size of the unclassified tail sand floe reached a maximum of 6.21 mm. The shearing action could accelerate the sedimentation of the floc. Under the same conditions, when the truss rotation speed was 0, 4 or 8 r/min, the corresponding flocculation settling speed was 1.23 cm/s, 4.92 cm/s and 3.36 cm/s, respectively.
