Influence mechanism of hydrocyclone main diameter on separation performance

Abstract

The main diameter of hydrocyclone (HC) has significant effects on separation performance. However, the differences of flow field characteristics within different HCs have not been understood well yet, which makes it impossible to grasp the influence mechanism of the main diameter on the separation performance. Through the study of the migration trajectories of particles, it is found that the greater the diameter and the finer the particles, the more particles escape from the overflow outlet. The relationships between the longest residence time and the HC main diameter for particles with 10 and 15 μm were, respectively, clarified. The high-speed video and particle image velocimetry experiments were performed and found although the main diameter of a large-HC (LHC) is twice that of a mini-HC (MHC), its air-core diameter is much larger than twice that of MHC, which is not beneficial for separations. The axial velocity around the central axis area in LHC is higher than that of the MHC, which helps separate low-density discrete phases from the overflow outlet at a faster speed but not for the separations of high-density discrete phases from the underflow outlet. The angle of the locus of zero vertical velocity in MHC is larger than that of LHC, which is anticipated to enhance the separation efficiency for the high-density discrete phase. This study first reveals the influence mechanism of the HC main diameter on its separation performance from the perspective of the flow field characteristics, which would hopefully provide significant references for the applications of HCs.