CFD Simulation of Liquid-Liquid Hydrocyclone: Oil/Water Application Available to Purchase

In the present work, the oil-water separation occurring inside a de-oiling hydrocyclone is investigated numerically using the RSM [1] and the RNG k-ε [2] turbulence models combined with the multiphase mixture model of Manninen et al. [3] implemented in the commercial code FLUENT. Interesting results are obtained concerning the effects of the inlet oil concentration, the oil droplet size, and the flow rate on the separation efficiency. The results are in agreement with the experimental measurements of Colman et al., [4]. The separation efficiency is known to be unaffected for a large range of inlet oil concentrations (Colman et al. [4], Gomez et al. [5]) and this is confirmed in the present study. In addition to the overall performance parameters, remarkable results describing the flow field behavior are obtained. The radial profiles of the axial and tangential velocity components are discussed. The flow reversal on the axis and the swirling behavior are shown. Results concerning the pressure drops, the friction coefficient and the turbulent Reynolds stresses are also presented. Since detailed results on the flow field for de-oiling hydrocyclones are scarce, the present study might be useful for future studies aiming to improve liquid-liquid separation efficiency depending strongly on the inside flow field behavior.