The dynamical characteristics of mineral particles settling in a number of inclined plates were analyzed. A novel theoretical model based on terminal settling velocity among particle property, equipment dimension and rising water velocity was proposed to describe the movement behavior of components with single-phase particle and bi-phase particles. The model proposes two new evaluation indexes, k and eta, to characterize the utilization factor and separation efficiency for particle sedimentation in the inclined plate channels, respectively. The equipment system was established to verify the model and it was found that the theoretical model was in good agreement with the experimental data, which indicates the key factors of this novel theoretical trajectory description have been obtained. The research results are of certain theoretical significance and practical value for the design of industrial inclined plate channels structure as well as operation conditions. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.