Experimental and numerical study on a new radial hydrocyclone with flow field conditioning

Abstract

Hydrocyclones are widely utilized in the oil-water separation domain. In this paper, a novel radial hydrocyclone is proposed, which is developed by modulating the turbulence of an axial hydrocyclone. The flow field obtained from numerical simulation reveals that radial hydrocyclone achieves a more favorable phase and velocity distribution. This characteristic facilitates the convergence and discharge of oil droplets within the hydrocyclones, as it features lower turbulent kinetic energy, higher tangential velocity, and enhanced stability. Experimental results regarding the separation performance demonstrate that the oil concentration at the heavy phase outlet of the radial hydrocyclone is reduced by up to 38.4 % compared with that of the axial hydrocyclone. This oil concentration increases with an increase of split ratio and inlet water content, while it decreases as the inlet flow rate increases. When the inlet water content increases from 70 % to 99 %, the oil concentration ranges from 67 mg/L to 447 mg/L. When the split ratio increases from 35 % to 65 %, the oil concentration varies from 108 mg/L to 700 mg/L. Within a range of ±20 % design flow rate, the oil concentration spans from 283 mg/L to 789 mg/L. Both experimental and simulation results indicate that turbulence regulation can significantly improve the performance of hydrocyclones, enhancing both the separation efficiency and the robustness of the system.