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Experimental and CFD investigations of the fluid flow inside a hydrocyclone separator with an air core

Renjie, Ke
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1449145729

Abstract Details

2015, Master of Sciences (Engineering), Case Western Reserve University, EMC - Mechanical Engineering.
Hydrocyclone separators are widely used in various industrial applications in the oil and mining industries to sort, classify and separate solid particles or liquid droplets within liquid suspensions, which are considered to be multi-phase systems. Numerous valuable studies have been conducted in recent years to investigate the flow fields inside hydrocyclones. However, much of the information regarding the performance of cyclones in the literature has limitations, based on in some part on the respectively current-available theoretical models, and much of it cannot be considered as completely applicable to most real-world applications; many of the studies investigated the flow fields within extremely simplified hydraulic designs that are not representative of the complex geometries or large sizes which are typical in industry. Therefore, in this study, the two phase flow system inside the actual hydraulic geometry of a milling circuit hydrocyclone was explored with the aid of both computational and experimental techniques (Particle Image Velocimetry). In this study, the flow field with an air core has been investigated; in essence, the research was a two-phase problem, which caused some challenges on both the computational and experimental sides. The computational modelling was conducted using Star CCM+, a commercial Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software package. Within its built-in mesh generator, a mesh domain containing more than 700,000 unstructured cells was created in a Cartesian coordinate system. In order to improve the numerical calculation accuracy and provide a logical and meaningful comparison with the experimental results, different numerical models were used: the Reynolds Stress Turbulence Model (RSM), Large Eddy Turbulence Model (LES), and the Volume of Fluid multiphase model to handle the air core. The second order discretization scheme was used for both turbulence models. The velocity and pressure contours belonging to various plane sections will be presented and discussed. Additionally, the computational studies also focused on the prediction of the dimensions and shape of the air core. Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) was used for the experimental measurements. The model hydrocyclone was made of optically clear acrylic. Refractive index matching was achieved using sodium iodide aqueous solution (63.3% NAI by weight) to facilitate PIV measurements. 10 µm silver coated hollow glass spheres were introduced into the flow as tracing particles. Different section planes of hydrocyclone were selected as planes of interest and then were divided into several fields of view (FOV). Two dimensional experimental velocity vector maps were obtained in each of the fields of view. Numerical results are compared to the experimental data. A more physically accurate air volume fraction contour was obtained when the Large Eddy Turbulence model was applied with the Volume of Fluid Multi-phase model, as compared to the RSM model. The shape and diameter of the air core were in good agreement with the experimental results, and the physical time of the air core generation calculated from the simulation approximated to the time scale observed in the experiments.
Jaikrishnan Kadambi, Dr. (Committee Chair)
Bo Li, Dr. (Committee Member)
Vikas Prakash, Dr. (Committee Member)
John Furlan, Dr. (Committee Member)
140 p.
Mechanical Engineering
Hydroyclone separator; PIV; CFD

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Citations

  • Renjie, K. (2015). Experimental and CFD investigations of the fluid flow inside a hydrocyclone separator with an air core [Master's thesis, Case Western Reserve University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1449145729

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Renjie, Ke. Experimental and CFD investigations of the fluid flow inside a hydrocyclone separator with an air core. 2015. Case Western Reserve University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1449145729.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Renjie, Ke. "Experimental and CFD investigations of the fluid flow inside a hydrocyclone separator with an air core." Master's thesis, Case Western Reserve University, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1449145729

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

case1449145729
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© 2015, some rights reserved.Creative Commons License Experimental and CFD investigations of the fluid flow inside a hydrocyclone separator with an air core by Ke Renjie is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at etd.ohiolink.edu.
This open access ETD is published by Case Western Reserve University School of Graduate Studies and OhioLINK.