Computational simulation of the effects of vortex finder diameter on the air core in a hydrocyclone separator

Yuekan Zhang, Peikun Liu, Linjing Xiao, Xinghua Yang, Junru Yang

College of Mechanical & Electronic Engineering Shandong University of Science and Technology, 266590, Qingdao, China

Air core is inherent to the solid-liquid hydrocyclone, the air core dimension plays a significant role in the separation efficiency. However, the formation mechanism of the air core in hydrocyclone has not arrived at an agreement. To further understand the flow behaviour of air core in hydrocyclones, in this paper, the volume of fluid (VOF) multiphase model and the Reynolds Stress Model (RSM) were adopted in this study to simulate the flow fields inside a hydrocyclone. The effect of the varying vortex finder diameter on the formation and development of air core was analysed, and the generation and development of the air core were investigated. The results showed that air core could be generated in shorter time and more stable state with larger vortex finder diameter. In addition, the diameter of the air core increased with the vortex finder diameter.