Effect of the Vortex Finder and Feed Parameters on the Short-Circuit Flow and Separation Performance of a Hydrocyclone

Abstract

The short-circuit flow, which is discharged from the vortex finder without separation, seriously affects the processing efficiency of the hydrocyclone. In this paper, the experimental test and numerical simulation methods are used to study the effect of the vortex finder and feed parameters on the short-circuit flow and separation performance. The Reynolds Stress method (RSM), Volume of Fluid (VOF), and Mixture model were adopted to predict the separation process in the hydrocyclone. The simulation results are analyzed in terms of the short-circuit flow rate, the ratio of the short-circuit flow rate to the inlet flow rate (hereafter this paper will be abbreviated as “its ratio”) and the separation efficiency. The results indicate that the smaller vortex finder diameter, thick-walled vortex finder, and moderate vortex finder length are conducive to inhibiting the short-circuit flow and decreasing the cut size (d50). A faster inlet velocity and higher feed concentration could increase the short-circuit flow but reduce its ratio. The relatively faster inlet velocity and lower feed concentration could decrease the d50 and improve the separation efficiency.

Designing the Spigot Structure of Hydrocyclones to Reduce Fine Particle Misplacement in Underflow

“…Dubey et al [15] combined high-speed photography and numerical simulation to quantify the relationship between the discharge angle and each structural parameter. Su et al [16] reported that the design of a thick-walled, smalldiameter vortex finder promoted the suppression of short-circuit flow, reduced coarse particle enrichment within overflow, and minimized the separation cut size. Ji et al [17] reported that a spiral feed design reduced separation energy consumption, achieving guidance and pre-classification of feed particles and improving fine particle separation performance.…”

Effect of Spiral Inlet Geometric Parameters on the Performance of Hydrocyclones Used for In Situ Desanding and Natural Gas Hydrate Recovery in the Subsea

“…Research has been carried out to evaluate the impact on the internal flow behavior of the hydrocyclone applied in other fields. Accordingly, many suggestions for optimizing the structural parameters of hydrocyclones are put forward. , For example, the performance of hydrocyclones can be improved by changing the overflow pipe, − the cone section, and the column section . Since the inlet structure is the key point affecting the separation behavior of hydrocyclones, more attention is paid to the optimization of the inlet structure.…”

Effect of spiral vanes width on the separation performance of a hydrocyclone

“…However, accurate flow field prediction requires the selection of appropriate turbulence models and multiphase flow models, and currently, the more used turbulence models are the Reynolds stress model (RSM) (Ishak and Ayoub, 2019) and the large eddy model (LES) (Padhi et al, 2020). Multi-phase flow models are widely used, such as the Volume of Fluid (VOF) model (Mokni et al, 2015), Mixture model (Su and Zhang, 2022), and Euler model (Zhang and Ni, 2022). Yang et al (2022) applied RSM and VOF models to simulate the flow field of continuous hydrocyclones, introduced the DPM model to track the particle trajectories, and conducted experimental investigations.…”

“…Padhi et al (2019) used the Mixture model to simulate the classification efficiency of multiple components within the hydrocyclone and showed that the simulation and the test were in general agreement. Su and Zhang (2022) adopted RSM, VOF, and Mixture models to predict the hydrocyclone separation process, and explored the effects of vortex finder and feed parameters on short-circuit flow and classification efficiency using experiments and simulations. Kou et al (2022) used a combination of RSM and Mixture to simulate the two-phase flow, and the simulation results were in good agreement with the experimental results.…”