Title: Turbulence model analysis of flow inside a hydrocyclone

Authors: D.W. Stephens, K. Mohanarangam

Addresses: Parker Centre, CSIRO Mathematics Informatics and Statistics, Minerals Down Under National Flagship, Clayton, Victoria 3169, Australia. ' Parker Centre, CSIRO Mathematics Informatics and Statistics, Minerals Down Under National Flagship, Clayton, Victoria 3169, Australia

Abstract: Turbulence analysis of flow inside a hydrocyclone is carried out using commercially available CFD software ANSYS CFX (release 11.0) (ANSYS Inc., 2007). CFD software(s) and their turbulence models have come a long way in accurately predicting the flow inside a hydrocyclone. This paper shows, among various turbulence models tested, a two-equation Shear Stress Transport (SST) turbulence model coupled with curvature correction can accurately predict the mean flow behaviour. The same level of accuracy was only found with a SSG Reynolds stress model with a penalty of solving an additional five transport equations. Experimental data of Hsieh (1988) and Monredon et al. (1992) was used to validate our CFD models.

Keywords: hydrocyclones; computational fluid dynamics; CFD; turbulence modelling; curvature correction; turbulent flow; shear stress transport; stress.

DOI: 10.1504/PCFD.2010.035370

Progress in Computational Fluid Dynamics, An International Journal, 2010 Vol.10 No.5/6, pp.366 - 373

Published online: 26 Sep 2010 *

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