Simulation analysis on the separation performance of spiral inlet hydrocyclone

ABSTRACT

The misplacement of coarse particles in overflow and fine particles in underflow are common problems in hydrocyclone separation. This study aimed to propose a hydrocyclone with a spiral inlet structure to improve the separation performance, and the design method of the spiral inlet is given. Based on verifying the accuracy of the VOF model and the Mixture model, the flow field characteristics and separation performance of the traditional tangential inlet hydrocyclone and the spiral inlet hydrocyclone were compared by numerical simulation method. The results showed that the spiral inlet hydrocyclone had a higher tangential speed and centrifugal strength than that of the traditional hydrocyclone. Moreover, the spiral inlet hydrocyclone had a lower turbulent kinetic energy and more stable flow field compared with the traditional tangential inlet hydrocyclone. The separation accuracy of the spiral inlet hydrocyclone is 12.24% higher than that of the tangential inlet hydrocyclone.

KEYWORDS:

• Hydrocyclone
• separation performance
• spiral inlet
• numerical simulation

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province, China; [ZR2020ME105].