J O U R N A L A R T I C L E S B Y F L U E N T S O F T WA R E U S E R S

JA231

Custom Simulation Tool Helps Develop

Cyclone With Sharper Recovery Profile
By Tim Olson
Manager of Product Development
Krebs Engineers
Tucson, Arizona

A template-based approach to computer simulation

helped Krebs Engineers develop a new hydrocyclone
design that provides a finer, sharper particle
separation at high capacities. The design of the new
hydrocyclone began with the idea of using multiple
cone angles in order to optimize the tangential

Figure 2: Pictures of some inlet heads

velocity profile inside the cyclone. This design was

Figure 1: A picture of the test rig used to validate the CFD model
effective but required a lot of prototype testing to
optimize the design. In addition, the existing inlet
design was generating a large amount of wear.
Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is a powerful
tool for simulating cyclone operation, however, CFD
software is expensive and it can take years to build
the expertise needed for accurate modeling of the
multiphase cyclone flow. Krebs overcame these
problems by working with Enductive Solutions,
Lebanon, New Hampshire, to develop a template-
based tool that allows them to simply enter the
dimensions and inlet conditions of the template in
order to accurately determine separation results as

Copyright © 2005 Fluent Inc. JA231 - Page 1 of 5

 Engineers modeled
various inlet designs
and identified one that
not only eliminated
the erosion problem
but further improved
separation efficiency.
The final
hydrocyclone design
has a separation size
or D50 value (particle
size with 50%
removal) of almost
half the previous
generation. The
simulation also helped
engineers gain a better
understanding of the
sensitivity of
hydrocyclone
performance to
various design
parameters, which will
help provide further
improvements in the
future.

Hydrocyclones use the

principle of centrifugal
separation to remove
or classify solid
particles from a fluid,
based on size, shape,
and density. A mixture
of fluid and particles is
fed tangentially into
the upper or larger
diameter part of the
hydrocyclone. The
resulting spinning
effect forces solids to
the wall of the device
and they exit from the
Figure 3: Drawings of Krebs' new gMAX product line bottom or apex of the
well as graphically depicting flows, pressures, and cone, while the cleaned liquid and fine particles exits
particle distributions inside the cyclone. Enductive at the top. In the past, hydrocyclone designers have
Solutions Inc. specializes in developing customized relied mainly upon empirical models to estimate
CAE applications, which insulate the user from the performance. The main problem with these packages
complexities of general-purpose CAE tools. is that they are accurate only within a narrow range of

Copyright © 2005 Fluent Inc. JA231 - Page 2 of 5

 geometries and sizes. Enductive proposed that
they first gain an understanding of Krebs' design
processes and the key parameters that affect
hydrocyclone performance as part of a technical
consulting project. Based on the lessons learned,
they would develop an analysis solution tailored
for use by design engineers to directly impact
product performance and time to market. The
solution would eliminate the need to license CFD
software by connecting directly to a remote
simulation facility provided by Fluent
Incorporated, the leading CFD software supplier.
The actual simulation would be performed
behind the scenes by this facility at a cost of
about $300 per run. The approach sounded good
so Krebs engaged
geometries, making it Enductive to
impossible to think outside develop the
the box and evaluate template-based
unusual geometries. CFD, model. The user
on the other hand, offers the interacts with the
ability to evaluate any template to
hydrocyclone geometry but specify the
it provides a number of diameter and
associated challenges. The length of up to
hydrocyclone, although several different
simple in design, presents a cone sections as
challenging flow problem. well as the inlet
The exact physics needed to geometry and
describe the swirling operating
multiphase flow is only conditions. The
partially understood. Even template then
so several companies are using CFD to accurately
predict hydrocyclone performance. The challenge
faced by Krebs is that, as a relatively small
company, the $20,000 to $30,000 annual cost of a
license for a high-end CFD software needed for
accurate hydrocyclone simulation was difficult to
justify. Another obstacle was the amount of
training and experience required to build up the
internal expertise needed to model hydrocyclones
from scratch internally.

Template-based simulation
Enductive presented Krebs with an intriguing
proposition. They proposed to develop a template
that could be used to enable design engineers
without a CFD background to carry out
hydrocyclone simulations over a wide range of Figure 4: Instructional slides showing how the Enductive tool works

Copyright © 2005 Fluent Inc. JA231 - Page 3 of 5

interacts with FLUENT CFD
software to generate a multiphase
model using an unstructured hex
mesh for the main body of the
cyclone. The tangential inlet is
meshed using tetrahedral elements
that are able to conform to its more
complicated geometry. A velocity
inlet defines the flow of slurry into
the hydrocyclone while radial
pressure distributions are applied to
the underflow and overflow outlets. A
Reynolds Stress turbulence model is
used to handle the complexities of the
highly swirling flow.
Figure 5: CFD simulation
At the point when the model had been image of Krebs cyclone
showing contours of
completed, a new advanced tangential velocity
hydrocyclone design called the
gMAX was being developed. The basic idea behind
this design was to make a finer cut with a large
cyclone by using two cone angles, the first steep and
the second shallow. The two sections work together
to keep the tangential velocities as high as possible
throughout the length of the hydrocyclone. Engineers
first modeled the old design and compared the
simulation results with laboratory tests in order to
evaluate its accuracy. The flow-splits and pressure
drops from laboratory tests were very close to
predicted flows from the model at two different
vortex finder sizes. The tool also provides the ability
to track the path of various size particles along the
internal hydrocyclone flow field. The new gMAX
design was then modeled and the results also
compared favorably with lab tests. The particle
recovery curve from the CFD model shows good
agreement with the actual performance measured in a
controlled test. The tool was also used to predict
performance of different vortex finder sizes and other
geometry changes. The tool properly predicted the
magnitude and direction of each of the performance
changes.
At this stage in the development process, separation
efficiency was high but excessive wear was being
seen on the inlet. This is a difficult problem both in
terms of measuring the comparative wear rates in the
field and simulating them in the lab. The length of
time required to make observations of wear rate is
Copyright © 2005 Fluent Inc.
prohibitive because the component
may last over a year before failure.
Inspection of worn inlet liners showed
evidence of a "hot spot" or location
where the rubber liner wore through,
even though the rest of the liner has a
lot of rubber thickness. This is like
having a tire bald in one small section
only with a lot of tread on the rest of
the tire. Krebs was able to define the
high wear areas by coating the inside
of the inlet with multiple layers of
different colored paint. Multiple layers
are quickly worn away in areas of the
inlet that are likely to experience high
Figure 6: CFD
erosion. The CFD model mentioned
simulation image of
Krebs cyclone showing
above proved its ability to measure
contours of volume wear rate by keeping track of the
fraction of air
particles that collided with each area
of the inlet and using a formula to calculate erosion
at each point in the inlet. The CFD erosion model
was also validated by producing wear in the same hot
spot shown in one of the paint tests. Engineers
conceived of another inlet design with the goal of
eliminating the turbulence in this area and, as a
result, extend the service life of the hydrocyclone.
This inlet features a refinement to the involute-style
inlet that has been a hallmark of Krebs Engineers
hydrocyclones for 50 years. In the new design, the
partition between the in-bound slurry and the
separation chamber of the hydrocyclone has been
extended significantly to further classify the solids
before introducing them into the main body of the
cyclone. The design provides an area for the inbound
slurry to gradually mix with the incoming fluids.
Reduced erosion levels and finer cut
The CFD model predicted that the new design for the
inlet would result in substantially lower erosion
levels. Physical testing confirmed the fact that the
new design did offer substantially less wear. The inlet
lasted twice as long, whereas the CFD study also
provided substantial additional information on the
performance of the alternative inlet designs that
provided valuable insights. For example, particle
tracks showed the paths of both a relatively large and
small particle that report to the underflow and
overflow respectively. The coarser particle was spun
out towards the outer wall after entering the internal
JA231 - Page 4 of 5
high tangential velocity area. The smaller particle,
following the predominant flow path, successfully
traversed this area and exited the overflow stream.
Both particles showed a residence path of about 1.5
seconds. Both particles showed a sharp change in
direction as they entered the open cylindrical section
of the hydrocyclone with the old inlet design. On the
other hand, the new design shows a very smooth
particle path from the inlet to the main body.

The new inlet design not only eliminated the erosion

problem but, as explained by the CFD results above,
substantially improved separation efficiency. The
reduced turbulence in the inlet area with the new
CFD aided design has resulted in a more efficient Figure 7: CFD simulation image of Krebs cyclone showing
velocity vector colored by velocity magnitude
separation with a smaller amount of coarse misplaced
particles exiting the cyclone overflow. CFD
simulations and laboratory testing also showed the
gMAX head reduced the D50 particle size, the size at
which 50% of particles are removed. When combined
with the benefits gained by the multiple cone sections
used in the gMAX design, the improvements were
even greater. The D50 recovery curve for a Krebs
D10LB hydrocyclone with a 20-degree cone was 114
microns. When the gMAX multiple cone design was
substituted, the D50 dropped to 59 microns, 40%
finer than the standard hydrocyclone on the same
feed at the same operating pressure. These results
demonstrate that dramatic improvements in
hydrocyclone design can be achieved by geometric
changes. They also show that template-based CFD
simulation provides the ideal platform for engineers
to quickly and easily obtain information needed to
understand design sensitivity and evaluate the
performance of alternatives without having to build
prototypes.

Copyright © 2005 Fluent Inc. JA231 - Page 5 of 5