Chandranath Banerjee Suresh Prof. Arun Kumar Majumder Prof. S N Verma

Research Paper
Volume : 2 | Issue : 4 | Apr 2013 ISSN No 2277 - 8179
Engineering
Effect of Variables on Water Split Behavior in

Hydrocyclone
Chandranath
Banerjee
Suresh
Prof. Arun Kumar
Majumder
Prof. S N Verma
ABSTRACT
KEYWORDS : water split, hydrocyclone,

modeling
Department of Mining Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology,

Kharagpur
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University Institute of Technology,

Rajiv Gandhi Proudyogiki Vishwavidyalaya, Bhopal - 462036, India
Department of Mining Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology,
Kharagpur
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University Institute of Technology,

Rajiv Gandhi Proudyogiki Vishwavidyalaya, Bhopal - 462036, India
Understanding of water split behavior in any centrifugal separator at different operating conditions is essential to understand particle separation mechanism. In this paper an attempt has been made to quantify the
effects of four major variables- spigot diameter, vortex finder diameter, feed inlet pressure and vortex finder length on water partitioning in hydrocyclone. For this purpose systematic experiment was carried out with a 76 mm hydrocyclone at various operating
conditions. The study reveals that out of these four variables only spigot diameter and vortex finder diameter play a significant role in
water partitioning behavior but feed pressure and vortex finder length has marginal effect on water split. Therefore, an attempt has
been made to develop a correlation to predict the water partitioning behavior in the cylindro-conical cyclones using spigot diameter
and vortex finder diameter as individual variables based on regression analyses of systematic experimental data generated. From the
developed correlation it is found that these two variables almost have equal impact on the water split in hydrocyclone.
Introduction
Hydrocyclones are used as a classifier in mineral processing industries. The hydrocyclone consists of a conical shaped vessel,
joined to a cylindrical section, which has a tangential feed inlet.
There are two axial product outlets, the spigot is situated at the
apex of the conical part and the vortex finder is located at the
upper end of the cylindrical section and contains a tube extending into the hydrocyclone, known as vortex finder length. This
is a dynamic particle separation unit, which utilizes centrifugal
force to enhance the relative settling velocity differentials between the particles.
Despite of several advantages associated with hydrocyclones,
the inability to classify particles at a givencut size consistently
is the major disadvantage with them. The inefficiency is mainly
due to the misplacement of significant amount of fine particles
through underflow. Lynch and Rao (1975) have concluded that
the recovery of relatively finer particles in the cyclone underflow is directly proportional to the water recovery through underflow. This suggests that water split behavior in a hydrocyclone influences its classification efficiency.
Therefore, many correlations (Abbot, 1962; Lindner, 1956;

Moder and Dahlstrom, 1952; Plitt, 1976; Stass, 1957; Yoshioka
and Hotta, 1955) have been developed to predict the water split
in hydrocyclone. All these models are empirical in nature and
therefore, the actual mechanism of water partitioning behavior
in a hydrocyclone is yet to be understood properly. It may also
be observed that majority of the models developed so far use
cone ratio (ratio of spigot diameter and vortex finder diameter)
as one of the model parameters. Use of cone ratio as a variable
may be misleading (Shah et al, 2006) because the ratio may be
kept constant by changing appropriate dimensions of spigot
and vortex finder diameter but their effects are bound to be different.
Castro (1990) found that the water split is mainly controlled by
the air core size and, therefore, the water split is governed by
those operating conditions and variables which affect the air
core. In literature, it is found that the vortex finder diameter
(VFD), spigot diameter (SPD) and feed inlet pressure (P) are the
three major variables, which affect the water split behaviour in
cyclones (Verghese et al, 1994; Banerjee et al, 2003; Shah et al,
2006). As the effect of vortex finder length (VFL) has not yet
been studied extensively on the water split behavior, an attempt
has been made to do so.
Experimentation
Experiments were carried out in a laboratory scale 76 mm diameter hydrocyclone fitted in a closed circuit test rig consisting
of conventional sump and pump assembly. A series of tests were
conducted to study the effects of spigot diameter, vortex finder
diameter, vortex finder length and feed pressure on water split.
One variable at a time methodology was used during experimentation. A product splitting arrangement fitted on the top of
the feed tank enabled the collection of overflow and underflow
water simultaneously. The range of variables use in the experiment are shown in table bellow
Table 1. Ranges of variables used for experiments with water
Sl. No.
1
2
3
4
Total
Number of
Experiments
=4x5x4x4
= 320
Variables
VFD (mm)
SPD (mm)
P (psi)
VFL (mm)
Levels
4
5
4
4
Range of variables
16, 19, 22, 25
9, 11, 13, 15, 17
10, 20, 30, 40
40, 42, 44, 46
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

It is well known that the size and the stability of an air core
created inside a hydrocyclone depend on the intensity of pressure drop in between the conical and the cylindrical portion
(Nowakowski et al., 2004). This is because the centrifugal force
generated inside a hydrocyclone due to the tangential entry increases with decreasing cyclone diameter. The performance of
an industrial hydrocyclone is generally controlled by using suitable spigot diameters keeping other variables unchanged. Any
change in spigot diameter will, therefore, change the pressure
drop. Again any change in spigot diameter also changes the inlet
velocity of fluid as the nature of restriction at the hydrocyclone
outlet changes automatically.
IJSR - INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH
Similarly, any change in the vortex finder diameter and the feed
inlet pressure also change the inlet velocity of fluid and as a result the pressure drop in between the conical section and the cylindrical section inside a hydrocyclone also changes. Any change
in vortex finder length also changes the distance between the
two discharge ends i.e. the distance between the vortex finder
and the spigot.
It is imperative from the above discussions that water split behavior in a hydrocyclone is strongly influenced by the feed inlet
pressure (P), spigot diameter (Du), vortex finder diameter (Do)
and the vortex finder length (VFL). To calculate the water partitioning at each operating condition the following equation has
been used:
Research Paper
The exponent value ranges from a minimum of 0.109 to a maximum value of 1.442. This huge variation in the exponent value
establishes as well the strong influence of Do on the % Overflow.
Taking average for all the values of we get a value of 0.645.Incorporating this value in Eq. (2) we may write
Rof=k2 (Do )0.645
(2a)
Figure 1: Effect of feed inlet pressure

The variations of % overflow with feed pressure at different
spigot diameter at a given vortex finder diameter is shown in
figure bellow.
% Overflow = (flow rate through vortex finder (/Total flow rate)

x100
Effect of Spigot Diameter (Du)

The effect of vortex finder diameter on water split is shown in
Fig. 1. It may be observed that with increase in vortex finder
diameter, water split decreases exponentially. The experimental
data may, therefore, be expressed in an exponential form as
% Overflow
Rof=K1 (Du )n1
(1)
10 PSI
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Figure 3: Effect of feed inlet pressure

Do = 0.016 m
Do = 0.019 m
Do = 0.022 m
Do = 0.025 m
0
0.005
0.01
0.015
0.02
From figure 3 it is observed that the % Overflow increases marginally with increasing feed inlet pressure at a constant Du and
Do. As the variation in data is marginal, no attempt has been
made to quantify the trends of the data observed.
Spigot Diameter (m)
Figure 1: Effect of Spigot Diameter
The exponent value ranges from -0.10 to a value of -1.75.The

negative sign represents the negative effect of Du on the %
Overflow. Taking average for all the values of we get a value of 0.70. Incorporating this value in Eq. (1) we may write
Rof=K1 (Du )-0.70 (1a)
Effect of vortex finder diameter (Do)

The variations of % overflow with vortex finder diameter at
different spigot diameter at a given pressure shown in figure
bellow. At different operating pressure the nature of the curve
remains identical
Figure 4: Effect of Vortex Finder Length

It is also observed from the Figure 4 that the % Overflow increases marginally with increasing vortex finder length at a
constant Du and Do and feed inlet pressure, P. As the variation
in data is marginal, no attempt has been made to quantify the
trends of the data observed.
From the above discussion it is interesting to note that amongst

the four variables studied only Du and Do are the most sensitive
variables causing water split in a classifying cyclone.
Figure 2: Effect of Vortex finder Diameter

The effect of vortex finder diameter on percentage overflow is shown
in Fig. 2. To quantify the effect of vortex finder diameter on experimental data may, therefore, be expressed in an exponential form as
Rof=K2 (Do )n2
10
(2)
Conclusions
1. Water flow rate in overflow directly depends on spigot
opening and vortex finder diameter.
2. Instead of using cone ratio as a model parameter, spigot
and vortex finder diameters should be used as independent
variables for water split modeling in hydrocyclones.
3. Inlet pressure has little role to play in water split behavior,
this is opposed to the conventional understanding of the
water split mechanism as explained in the literature. Actually, feed inlet pressure controls the inlet water velocity
which is dependent on the effective cross-sectional areas of
the spigot and the vortex finder when the hydrocyclone is in
Research Paper
operation. Therefore, the increase in feed inlet pressure beyond a critical limit will not increase the inlet water velocity
further as the increase in inlet pressure beyond a certain
limit will be due to back pressure only which will have no
impact on inlet water velocity.
4. Vortex finder length also does not affect much on the water
split behavior.
5. The values of the exponents of Du and Do are almost identical which establishes the equal impacts of these two variables on the water split behavior in a hydrocyclone.
Dc cyclone cylindrical diameter in meter

k1 k and K Constants
Rof percentage recovery in overflow
QO water flow rate in overflow, kg/s
Qu water flow rate in underflow, kg/s
2
Nomenclature
Du Spigot diameter in meter
Do Vortex finder diameter in meter
Di fee inlet diameter in meter
REFERENCE
1. Abbot, J., Trans. Inst. Min. & Metall., 71, 531 (1962). 2. Banerjee P. K., Rao T. C., Govindarajan B., Bapat J. P.,Chatterjee, S. Barnwal, J. P. and Rao,
P. V. T. A Plant Comparison of the Vorsyl Separator and Dense Medium Cyclone in the Treatment of Indian Coals. International Journal of Mineral
Processing, Vol. 69, 101-114, 2003. 3. Bradley, D., The Hydrocyclone, 1st edition, Pergamon Press, New York, 1965. 4. Castro, O., Pulp Rheology effects for hydrocyclone models,
M.Sc. Thesis, University of Queensland, 1990. 5. D.J. Kelsall and J.A. Holmes, Hydrocyclones, U.S. Patent No. 3,130,157, 1964. 6. Govindarajan, B., Modeling Studies on Vorsyl Separator and Heavy Medium Cyclone, PhD Tesis, Indian School Of Mines, Dhanbad, 1991. 7. Lindner, E., Maschinenbautechnic, 5, 455 (1956). 8. Lynch, A.J., Rao, T.C., Modelling and
scale up of hydrocyclone classifiers. Paper Presented at 11th Int. Min. Process. Cong., Cagliari, Italy, (1975). 9. Moder, J.J., and Dahlstrom, D.A., Chem.Engg. Progr., 48,75(1952). 10.
Nowakowski, A.F., Cullivan, J.C., Williams, R.A., Dyakowski, T., 2004. Application of CFD to modeling the flow in hydrocyclones. Is this a realizable option or still a research challenge?
Minerals Engineering 5, pp. 661669 (2004). 11. Plitt, L.R., A mathematical model of the hydrocyclone classifier, CIM Bull., 69(776), pp. 114-123(1976). 12. Shah, H, Majumder A.K.,
and Barnwal J.P., Development of water split model for a 76 mm hydrocyclone, Minerals Egineering, 19, pp.102-104(2006). 13. Stass, M., Int. Min. Dress. Cong., Stockholm (1957).
14. Wills, B.A., Mineral Processing Technology, 5th edition, Pergamon Press.New York, 1992. 15. Yoshioka, N. and Hotta, Y., Liquid cyclone as a classifier, Cehm. Engf. Japan, 19, pp
632-640(1955).
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Research Paper

Volume : 2 | Issue : 4 | Apr 2013 ISSN No 2277 - 8179

Effect of Variables on Water Split Behavior in

KEYWORDS : water split, hydrocyclone,

Department of Mining Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology,

Department of Mechanical Engineering, University Institute of Technology,

Department of Mechanical Engineering, University Institute of Technology,

Therefore, many correlations (Abbot, 1962; Lindner, 1956;

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

IJSR - INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

Volume : 2 | Issue : 4 | Apr 2013 ISSN No 2277 - 8179

Figure 1: Effect of feed inlet pressure

% Overflow = (flow rate through vortex finder (/Total flow rate)

Effect of Spigot Diameter (Du)

Rof=K1 (Du )n1

Figure 3: Effect of feed inlet pressure

Spigot Diameter (m)

Figure 1: Effect of Spigot Diameter

The exponent value ranges from -0.10 to a value of -1.75.The

Effect of vortex finder diameter (Do)

Figure 4: Effect of Vortex Finder Length

From the above discussion it is interesting to note that amongst

Figure 2: Effect of Vortex finder Diameter

IJSR - INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

Volume : 2 | Issue : 4 | Apr 2013 ISSN No 2277 - 8179

Dc cyclone cylindrical diameter in meter

IJSR - INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

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