An Empirical Investigation on the Influence of the Number of Particle Outlets and Volume Flow Rates on Separation Efficiency and Pressure Drop in a Uniflow Hydrocyclone

Abstract

The influence of the number of particle outlets as well as of varying inlet and underflow volume flow rates on separation efficiency and pressure drop of uniflow hydrocyclones was empirically investigated. Therefore, several prototypes were designed and constructed, and separation tests were systematically conducted on a test rig. With regard to the number of particle outlets, the influence of a single, twofold and fourfold particle outlet on the separator’s performance was evaluated. The results showed that a higher number of particle outlets had neither a measurable influence on the separator’s separation efficiency nor on the pressure drop. However, high inlet volume flow rates favor particle separation but also lead to higher pressure drops. Accordingly, separation efficiencies in a range of 26.92 % to 38.56 % were recorded, while the pressure drop simultaneously varied between 0.218 bar and 0.413 bar. The separation efficiency was additionally enhanced by applying higher underflow volume flow rates. Increasing the underflow to inlet volume flow ratio by 4 % led to performance improvements by more than 6 % on average.