Effects of key structural parameters on solid–liquid separation behavior of hydrocyclone separator applied to hydraulic oil purification

Abstract

Contamination control in fluid power system is a challenge due to the fact that it has been one of the major reasons of wear, failure, and the related downtime. A novel hydraulic oil purifier proposed in this study is considered to be capable of removing the solid particle contaminant, moisture, and gas simultaneously, which consists of two parts: hydrocyclone separator and rotating packed bed (i.e. Higee). A hydrocyclone separator used to be applied to chemical industry is tried to be designed according to experiential parameters in a typical fluid power system for the first time. And then, the mathematical model of the hydrocyclone separator has been established. The distribution of the hydraulic oil and solid particles in swirling flow field inside the base hydrocyclone separator has been simulated with the help of computational fluid dynamics software Fluent. The effects of the cone angle and cylindrical length on the separation performance of the hydrocyclone separator have been subsequently investigated. Based on the simulation results, the hydrocyclone separator with 25° cone angle and 60 mm cylindrical length has been considered as the most satisfied configuration. Simulation analysis of the optimal configuration flow field reflects a relatively pleasant solid–liquid separation performance considered to be beneficial to controlling the contamination level of fluid power system. The research outcome will lay a foundation for the development of the new hydraulic oil purifier proposed in this study.

Keywords

Cone angle cylindrical length fluid power system hydrocyclone separator numerical simulation solid–liquid separation

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Xia

Zhang

. Status and development of contamination control technology for hydraulic system. Hydraul Pneumatics Seals 2000; n1: 32–39. (in Chinese).

Jia

Wang

. The research situation and main expectation on the technology of hydraulic contamination control. Hydraul Pneumatics Seals 2004; n1: 15–17. (in Chinese).

Norvelle

. Contamination control — the key to reliability in fluid power systems. Wear 1984; 94(1): 47–70.

Frith

Sott

. Control of solids contamination in hydraulic systems – an overview. Wear 1993; 165: 69–74.

Xia

. Contamination control of hydraulic system, Beijing: China Machine Press, 1992. (in Chinese).

Ramshaw C and Mallinson RH. Mass transfer process. Patent 4283255, USA, 1981.

Luo

Chu

Zou

. Mass transfer studies in a rotating packed bed with novel rotors: chemisorption of CO₂. Ind Eng Chem Res 2012; 51(26): 9164–9172.

Chen

Manickam

. Green high-gravitational synthesis of silver nanoparticles using a rotating packed bed reactor (RPBR). Ind Eng Chem Res 2012; 51(15): 5375–5538.

Qian

. Selective absorption of H₂S from a gas mixture with CO₂ by aqueous N-methyldiethanolamine in a rotating packed bed. Ind Eng Chem Res 2010; 49(13): 6196–6203.

10.

Chen

Huang

Lin

. A continuous-flow biodiesel production process using a rotating packed bed. Bioresour Technol 2010; 101(2): 668–673.

11.

Chang

Chiu

Chang

. Pt-catalyzed ozonation of aqueous phenol solution using high-gravity rotating packed bed. J Hazard 2009; 168(2–3): 649–655.

12.

Hoffmann

Stein

. Gas cyclones and swirl tubes: principles, design and operation, New York; Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag, 2002.

13.

Bretney E. Cyclone. Patent 453105, USA, 1891.

14.

Svarovsky

. Hydrocyclones, New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1984.

15.

Yang

Wang

Liu

. Solid/liquid separation performance of hydrocyclones with different cone combinations. Sep Purif Technol 2010; 74(3): 271–279.

16.

Wang

. Numerical study of the gas-liquid-solid flow in hydrocyclones with different configuration of vortex finder. Chem Eng J 2008; 135(1–2): 33–42.

17.

Chu

Chen

Lee

. Effect of structural modiﬁcation on hydrocyclone performance. Sep Purif Technol 2000; 21(1–2): 71–86.

18.

Oliveira

Almeida

CAK

Vieira

LGM

. Influence of geometric dimensions on the performance of a filtering hydrocyclone: an experimental and CFD study. Braz J Chem Eng 2009; 26(3): 575–582.

19.

Bhasker

. Flow simulation in industrial cyclone separator. Adv Eng Software 2010; 41(2): 220–228.

20.

Ghasemi

Sohrabib

Khosravia

. CFD simulation of solid-liquid flow in a two impinging streams cyclone reactor: prediction of mean residence time and holdup of solid particles. Chem Eng Process 2010; 49(12): 1277–1283.

21.

Hirt

Nichols

. Volume of fluid (VOF) method for the dynamics of free boundaries. J Comput Phys 1981; 39(1): 201–225.

22.

Dyakowski

Hornung

Williams

. Simulation of non-Newtonian flow in a hydrocyclone: separation processes. Chem Eng Res Des 1994; 72(4): 513–520.

23.

Sujeet

Prashant

Pradyumna

. Evaluation of numerical schemes using different simulation methods for the continuous phase modeling of cyclone separators. Adv Powder Technol 2011; 22(2): 209–219.

24.

Lim

EWC

Chen

Wang

. Experimental and computational studies of multiphase hydrodynamics in a hydrocyclone separator system. Chem Eng Sci 2010; 65(24): 6415–6424.

25.

Zhang

. Design and optimization of the hydrocyclone for fine particle separation in oil field sludge. Liaoning Chem Ind 2007; 36(12): 813–818. (in Chinese).

26.

Jiang

Huang

. Advanced application and example analysis of Fluent, Beijing: Tsinghua University Press, 2008. . (in Chinese).

27.

Cullivan

Williams

Cross

. Understanding the hydrocyclone separator through computational fluid dynamics. Trans Inst Chem Eng 2003; 81(Part A): 455–466.

28.

Nie

Huang

. Tribological study on hydrostatic slipper bearing with annular orifice damper for water hydraulic axial piston motor. Tribol Int (Elsevier Science) 2006; 39(11): 1342–1354.