Optimizing The Process Of Separation In Hydrocyclones

Hydrocyclones are widely accepted in mineral processing and mining industries. It is because of its range of advantages, less maintenance, ease of operation, and fewer floor requirement.

No matter in which industry you install hydrocyclone, the first and foremost concern is to enhance the efficiency of the hydrocyclone. The device is useful in the separation of coarse particles from finer particles from liquids via centrifugal force.

For the last couple of years, the challenge through which the device is working on is to minimize the pressure drop to enhance the efficiency of its performance. For the longest time, the obstruction that this hydrocyclone went through was the non-availability of a high-speed computation system.

But, today, the main assessment tools to analyze the efficiency of hydro cyclone performance are either laboratory measurement or Computation Fluid Dynamics(CFD). It enhances the efficiency's experimental procedures and numerical results, and along with that, it reduces the cost and time expenditure.

The process of separation in Hydrocyclone is:

Hydrocyclones are composed of three sections. An inlet pipe, an outlet section at the top and bottom of the cyclone, and the vortex for separation.

The rectangular cyclone feed inlet face was defined as a pressure inlet. The overflow and underflow outlets' faces were designated as pressure outlets. Radial pressure distribution from the cyclone axis to the edges opts at both the pressure outlets.

The products are fed into the hydrocyclones under a certain pressure. It creates the centrifugal force inside the vortex according to Stokes' law. The decreasing radius of the conical part of the vortex increases the speed of the force hence, enhances the separation. The force created helps in discharging of concentrated solid through the apex, while the finer particle comes out of the overflow. The vortex finder creates a fast upward moving spiral movement that allows the lighter material to exit through the overflow.

Conclusion

Hydrocyclone efficiency varies with the size of the coarse particles in the wet slurry and the radius of the inner vortex. You can avoid these conditions by asking the mining equipment manufacturer to customize the hydrocyclones design, which will increase its efficiency.