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Numerical investigation of cone angle effect on the flow field and separation efficiency of deoiling hydrocyclones

Saidi, M ; Sharif University of Technology | 2013

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  1. Type of Document: Article
  2. DOI: 10.1007/s00231-012-1085-8
  3. Publisher: 2013
  4. Abstract:
  5. In this study, the effect of cone angle on the flow field and separation efficiency of deoiling hydrocyclones is investigated taking advantage of large eddy simulation. The dynamic Smagorinsky is employed to determine the residual stress tensor of the continuous phase. The method of Lagrangian particle tracking with an optimized search algorithm (closest cell) is applied to evaluate the separation efficiency of deoiling hydrocyclone. Simulations are performed on a 35-mm deoiling hydrocyclone with the three different cone angles of 6, 10 and 20 degree. The numerical results revealed that the changes in the cone angle would affect the velocity and pressure distribution inside hydrocyclone, and lead to changes in the separation efficiency. However, the large cone angle increases the tangential velocity and pressure gradient inside the hydrocyclone, but reduces the separation efficiency. The reasons behind the decrease in the separation efficiency are the flow structure and reduction of oil droplets residence time in hydrocyclones with large cone angles
  6. Keywords:
  7. Cone angle ; Continuous phase ; De-oiling ; Deoiling hydrocyclone ; Different cone angles ; Hydro-cyclone ; Hydrocyclones ; Lagrangian particle tracking ; Numerical investigations ; Numerical results ; Oil droplets ; Residence time ; Search Algorithms ; Separation efficiency ; Tangential velocities ; Computational fluid dynamics ; Efficiency ; Flow fields ; Large eddy simulation ; Residence time distribution ; Separation ; Cyclone separators
  8. Source: Heat and Mass Transfer/Waerme- und Stoffuebertragung ; Volume 49, Issue 2 , February , 2013 , Pages 247-260 ; 09477411 (ISSN)
  9. URL: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00231-012-1085-8