Research On Three Dimensional Numerical Simulation Of Deoiling Hydrocyclone

Recently, more and more researches have focused on applying the method of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to studying the hydrocyclone.Adopting the advanced commercial CFD software——FLUENT which is based on the finite volume method (FVM) as the researching tools of 3D numerical simulation of deoiling hydrocyclones. Summarizing a method of mesh generation through analyzing the geometric structure of hydrocyclone; According to the theory of CFD and turbulence simulation, ascertaining mathematical model, boundary conditions, convection-diffusion discretization scheme and pressure-velocity coupling algorithm reasonably. Combined with the swirl motion in fluid mechanics, combination vortex theory and the flow characteristics in the hydrocyclone, exhibiting the flow and turbulence scalar field of Thew's hydrocyclone wholly. Deoiling hydrocyclone major structural parameters and operating parameters was simulated which concluded the principles of the effect of the flow field. On the basis of the CFD methods and the successful simulation of single-phase flow field, further study of two-phase flow model has been done and concluded concentration distribution of the oil field, relationship between flow and separation efficiency, relationship between split ratio and separation efficiency and grade efficiency on the Thew's hydrocyclone (Dc=20mm); Experimental results showed that the relative error between the separation efficiency of the simulation and experimental testing did not exceed 5%, we can know that simulating hydrocyclone separation performance using software FLUENT was feasible. At the same time by unsteady numerical simulation of light phase separating process in the deoiling hydrocyclone, the process of separating, aggregating and shifting of the light phase (oil) was gained and the size of the cone was revealed. The most important factor of separation efficiency was the geometric parameters. Deoiling hydrocyclone with different cone angle was simulated and validated by experiment, gained the cone angle on the impact of oil-water separation. Finally, the optimization of design principles based on CFD was proposed.In conclusion, the study of mathematical models, computational methods and principles of optimization can accurately forecast the internal flow field of deoiling hydrocyclone. It also provides basic theory and experience for studying on deoiling hydrocyclone such as separation mechanism, flow and turbulent scalar field characteristics and structure optimization design.