Study of Underflow Diameter, Vortex Finder, Cylindrical and Conical Lengths of a Hydrocyclone to Achieve High Separation Sharpness

In the past, the main function of a hydrocyclone was to separate solids from a liquid. At a later time, it has been continually developed for classification functions in addition to separation. Therefore, this research aimed to study experimentally the effects of underflow diameter, vortex finder, cylindrical and conical lengths of a hydrocyclone on separation sharpness. The separation sharpness was studied using a 40-mm hydrocyclone body diameter. The tested suspension was a mixture of silica and water. The silica particles have a mean diameter of 8.097 µm at a feed-flow rate of 1 m3/h. The experimental result revealed that an increase in the separation sharpness resulted from either increasing vortex finder or conical length of the hydrocyclone, either decreasing underflow diameter or cylindrical length. To increase the separation sharpness of the 40-mm hydrocyclone, the designer should consider the hydrocyclone dimensions by choosing an underflow diameter of 2.4 mm, vortex finder length of 40 mm, cylindrical length of 60 mm and conical length of 280 mm.