Study on the influence of conical section volume on hydrocyclone performance in wastewater particle treatment

The conical section, serving as the main separation region, significantly influences classification performance. However, the mechanism by which conical section volume affects the internal flow field and classification performance remains unclear. In this study, the mechanism of conical section volume on the internal flow field and particle classification performance of the hydrocyclone was elucidated through numerical analysis and experimental validation. The results indicate that: Increasing the conical section volume reduces static pressure and tangential velocity, resulting in a significant decrease in centrifugal intensity. The radial velocity shows an approximately decreasing trend, while turbulence intensity exhibits an initial increase followed by a decrease as the conical section volume increases; this behavior is related to circulation flow within the conical section. As the conical section volume increases, the hydrocyclone's cut size and classification precision gradually deteriorate, but the fishhook effect is mitigated, effectively reducing the content of fine particles in the spigot. Laboratory experiments revealed that at a conical section volume of 45 mm, the fine particle content in the underflow was minimized at 5.19 %, and the mass efficiency reached a maximum of 49.95 %, demonstrating superior classification performance compared to other conical section volumes.