Effect of inner wall configurations on the separation efficiency of hydrocyclone

Abstract

The cyclone separator is widely used for separating liquid-gas as well as particle-laden flow through the vortex separation phenomenon. This is a simple principle with wide temperature and pressure range, so it can be used in various industrial fields. So far, many studies have dealt with the case where there is no groove on the inner wall of the hydrocyclone. In this study, the flow characteristics and the particle separation efficiency of the cyclone separator were investigated by changing the inner wall configuration through numerical analysis. The geometry was designed by changing the wall configuration after referring to previous research. The change of wall was ribbing (convex) and slotting (concave) with a helical pattern. The helical parameters were changed, and their results were compared with each other. The working fluid is water, and the solid is an asphalt that was assumed to be spherical. Numerical analysis was performed using ANSYS CFX ver. 18.1. The Reynolds stress turbulence model (RSM) was used, which is suitable for the simulation of swirling turbulent and vorticial flows. The results of this study suggest that the optimal shape of wall surface will improve the fine particle separation technique of the cyclone separator.