Abstract:
Hydrocyclones have found wide application in many areas such as
solid/liquid separation, powder classification and purification of minerals. The effect
of solids concentration on separation performance of hydrocyclone is well recognised
in practice but very little quantitative information exists in the literature. A brief
review of the current knowledge in the area is followed by a proposal of a semiempirical
dimensionless correlation which relates the reduced cut size to the operating
variables including the solids concentration. The validity of correlation is shown by
comparison with the results of tests performed with 125 mm and 50mm diameter
hydrocyclones at varying feed concentrations.
The equation proposed here allows scale-up and predicting of performance in application
with feed concentration higher than 8 % by volume when available theories
cannot be applied.
