Abstract
Effectiveness and efficiency of hydro-cyclone separators are highly dependent on their geometrical parameters and flow characteristics. Performance of the hydro-cyclone can, therefore, be improved by modifying the geometrical parameters or flow characteristics. The mining and chemical industries are faced with problems of separating ore-rich stones from the nonore-rich stones. Due to this problem a certain amount of precious metals is lost to the dumping sites. Plant managers try to solve these problems by stockpiling what could be useless stones, so that they can be reprocessed in the future. Reprocessing is not a sustainable approach, because the reprocessed material would give lower yield as compared to the production costs. Particulate separation in a hydro-cyclone has been investigated in this paper, by using computational fluid dynamics. The paper investigated the influence of various flow and geometric parameters on particulate separation. Optimal parameters for efficient separation have been determined for the density of fluid, diameter of the spigot, and diameter of the vortex finder. The principal contribution of this paper is that key parameters for design optimization of the hydro-cyclone have been investigated.
Highlights
The separation of dispersed solid particles from a suspension is an essential unit operation in many fields of mechanical separation technology, for instance mining and chemical industries
Computational fluid dynamics modeling technology is not yet perfect in Advances in Mechanical Engineering modeling hydrocyclones, and it is certainly still possible to improve our understanding of the fundamentals and models needed to describe them
A 900 mm vortex finder length is the ideal for efficient separation of solid particles, because all copper particles go out through the spigot and less stones appear in the spigot
Summary
The separation of dispersed solid particles from a suspension is an essential unit operation in many fields of mechanical separation technology, for instance mining and chemical industries. Fisher and Flack [1] published experimental studies of the flow in hydrocyclones. This has been informative with regards to the internal flowfield dynamics, but the following important aspects are still not understood. Computational fluid dynamics modeling technology is not yet perfect in Advances in Mechanical Engineering modeling hydrocyclones, and it is certainly still possible to improve our understanding of the fundamentals and models needed to describe them. Computational studies have been, in general, limited to low particle-concentration flows and to simplified geometries of the hydrocyclone entry region. In the design of hydrocyclone, the two bypasses must be minimized to realize higher performance efficiencies. This study attempts to minimize both underflow and overflow bypasses in order to realize higher performance efficiencies
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