Performance enhancement of axial concurrent liquid–liquid hydrocyclone separator through optimization of the swirler vane angle

Abstract

Vane angle configuration is considerably affecting the internal flow behavior and separation performance of a concurrent axial inlet liquid–liquid hydrocyclone. This study was carried out to improve the design of the swirl generator by optimizing the vane’s deflection angle in an oil/water axial inlet hydrocyclone separator. Angles ranging from 37° to 75° were examined at various operational conditions, including mixture temperature, mixture flow rate, and water-to-oil ratio. Two analysis techniques have been coupled to achieve the aim. First, design of experiment by the response surface method was utilized to generate a combination of run/boundary conditions of swirler vane angles, inlet mixture temperatures, flow rates, and concentrations. The obtained 15 run/boundary conditions were adopted as cases for computational fluid dynamics simulation to determine the separation efficiency, tangential velocity and pressure drop of each case using ANSYS Fluent software. The optimization results show that the swirl generator with a 45° deflection angle generated slightly higher tangential velocity compared with higher and lower vane deflection angles. The separation efficiency obtained by using the 45° swirl generator was higher than other angles, in spite that the turbulence intensity is slightly higher at 45° compared to other vane angles.

Oily Water Separation Process Using Hydrocyclone of Porous Membrane Wall: A Numerical Investigation

“…According to the literature, the hydrocyclone has demonstrated great efficiency in the free oil/water separation process [ 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 ]. This equipment has a high processing capacity, requires little physical space for installation, is simple to operate, and requires low maintenance frequency.…”

Separation characteristics and structure optimization of double spherical tangent double-field coupling demulsifier

“…Al-Kayiem et al ( 2019) studied the effects of different inlet forms on the separation performance of the device and found that the flow field of the dual inlet was more stable than that of the single inlet, which was more conducive to improving the separation efficiency of the device. Al-Kayiem et al (2020) investigated the influence of the vane's deflection angle in an oil/water axial inlet hydrocyclone separator on the separation efficiency. The study found that the separation efficiency obtained by using the 45° swirl generator was higher than other angles.…”

Impact of Permeable Membrane on the Hydrocyclone Separation Performance for Oily Water Treatment

“…Several studies have been reported in the literature using hydrocyclones in the water/oil separation process [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 ]. In these studies, the hydrocyclone has been considered as a highly efficient and applicable piecer of equipment, and thus several configurations have been proposed, aiming at its optimization.…”