NUMERICAL MODELLING OF AXIAL HYDROCYCLONE – PHASE SEGREGATION OF DISPERSED OIL IN CONTINUOUS WATER PHASE

Resumo

This paper presents a numerical model of the particle trajectory in an axial hydrocyclone
under laminar flow conditions using Discrete Phase Model (DPM). The DPM is an implementation
of Lagrangian particle tracking which is essentially a means of tracking discrete particles through a
continuum of fluid. The primary phase (continuous phase) is water and the second phase (discrete phase)
is oil. The numerical analysis has been carried for laminar axial Reynolds numbers along a 91.2 mm
internal diameter size and 2.7 m long pipe. The swirling flow is generated from static swirler with 7
vanes, deflection angle of 65.5◦

, and a gap width of 5 mm. The particle trajectory was obtained for
two Reynolds numbers (150 and 300) and three different diameters (10, 100 e 1000 μm). From this
conditions it is possible to conclued that the larger particle diameter the closer to the center of thecan
get closer to the center of the tube along the dowstream flow of the swirler. Besides that, the Reynolds
number impact shows that how smaller it was, the closer to the center the particle remais and reaches a
stable radial position.