The effect of feed concentration on the performance of hydrocyclones

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.