Numerical simulation and experimental study on internal and external characteristics of novel Hydrocyclones

The design and optimization of the hydrocyclone inlet are an effective way to improve the overall performance of the hydrocyclone. In this paper, a set of novel hydrocyclones are designed by changing single to multiple inlets and narrowing the inlet width. The effects of inlet size and number of inlet on the particle separation efficiency, cut-size, the velocity field and pressure characteristics are discussed based on the same feed flow rates, with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and experimental methods. The governing equations are coupled using the SIMPLE algorithm, while the Reynolds stress model (RSM) is employed for hydrocyclone turbulent model due to anisotropic nature. Particle trajectories are simulated with discrete phase model (DPM) due to low volume fraction of solid particles in the mixed fluid. The simulated particle separation efficiencies and cut-size approximately agree with experimental data. The results show that it is changing single inlet to multiple inlets and narrowing the inlet width that produce positive effects on the growing of tangential velocity of the hydrocyclone, increasing the centrifugal force of the discrete phase, reducing the resistance buoyance, prolonging the residence time of particles, which reduce the effective size of the cut size and make the total separation efficiency increase by 4.31%.