What Are Hydrocyclones And How Do They Work?

Hydrocyclones are industrial equipment that looks like massive conical containers. Manufacturing industries that require breaking solid particles into liquid streams can use a hydrocyclone to generate the required material.

The object has a cylindrical top along with an offset feed inlet pipe. There is an outlet for overflow at the top and tiny cones inside that break the objects into small particles. Hydrocyclones can have a diameter of as low as 10 mm and go up to 1000 mm. You can determine your requirement according to your industry standards.

After installation, solids are added to hydrocyclones to break them into liquid form to create desired material. It requires water to flow under pressure and create a swirling motion inside the cylindrical object. With the centrifugal force, hydrocyclones slowly start breaking the big particles. The smaller objects keep flowing towards the outlet, while the larger particles keep circulating until broken to produce fineness.

Some quantities of solid usually remain in the middle portion of the cylindrical machinery with water. It spirals towards the air core and goes out from the central pipe. If large amounts of solids remain and gush out through this pipe, it will indicate an incorrect usage that may require repair.

How to install Hydrocyclones?

There are four primary sections in a hydrocyclone. These include:

• Cone or the body of the product

• Feed chamber

• Underflow or the spigot liner/apex

• Overflow or the vortex finder

A cone is a one-piece object that requires you to add the particles through the feed chamber and creates a vortex. The centripetal forces the solid material to break down, making the liquid produced push upwards in a vortex.

To simply your understanding, consider a hydrocyclone to have two parts:

• One valve on top for the upflow

• One valve for the downflow outlet

The combined work of two flows during the functioning of the machinery maximizes output. One can set the pressure at which the hydrocyclone runs depending on how coarse the object is or how fine the results must be. A fixed orifice will ensure a smooth functioning set according to the determined pressure.

The pressure of the inlet when running a hydrocyclone helps you determine d50 or the separation point. The separation point indicates the size of the particle when broken and the flow of the stream. If the pressure is lower, the results will be coarser, while higher pressure will determine finer breakage.