Study on multi-component particle behaviour in a hydrocyclone classifier using experimental and computational fluid dynamics techniques

Particle Motion Characteristics in W-Shaped Hydrocyclones

“…Patra [27] applied the CFD technique and a three-dimensional double-precision separation steady-state solution tool based on the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes method to study the complex flow characteristics inside a hydrocyclone with a spiral rib and found that the total pressure drop of the hydrocyclone was smaller than that of a conventional one. Padhi [28] modified the mixture model by considering the effects of additional shear lift, hindered settling drag law and solid particle content on the slurry viscosity, which better predicted the separation performance at different ratios of silica and magnetite particles of a 75 mm hydrocyclone, and their simulation results were close to experimental results. In recent years, the CFD-discrete element method (DEM) approach has emerged to simulate the particle motion characteristics of hydrocyclones.…”

Understanding the Bicomponent Particle Separation Mechanism in a Hydrocyclone Using a Computational Fluid Dynamics Model

“…With the modified ASM model, it is observed that simulated viscosity levels have increased to an expected maximum value of 10 cP. The modified slurry viscosity 12 consists of two key factors, the effect of the solids fraction on viscosity and the effect of fines (less than −38 μm) for enhancing the viscosity effect. These are represented as follows:…”

“…hydrocyclone treating magnetite and silica material at various feed proportions via both experimental and numerical approaches. 12 The variation in the separation cutsize of the components has been explained with the help of a locus of zero vertical velocity and equilibrium orbit positions. The predicted CFD performance data were validated with the in-house experiments.…”

“…The modified mixture model was utilized for the multiphase simulations using 10−12 phase transport equations, where the primary phase is water and dispersed phases are air (incompressible, density = 1.225) and remaining phases are particles representing the size and density similar to previous multicomponent simulation work. 12 In the current study, the inlet feed velocity is maintained constant at 0.98 m/s. The particles were introduced at the inlet with the granular option.…”

“…The particles were introduced at the inlet with the granular option. 12 Each of the components (magnetite and silica) were considered at five different sizes (2.75, 5.5, 11, 22, and 44 μm) for pure-component simulations and four different sizes (2.75, 11, 22, and 44 μm) for the mixture cases. The size distribution of both components was kept similar to the experiments.…”