‘THE EFFECT OF THE AIR CORE ON THE FLOW FIELD WITHIN HYDROCYCLONES LUO QIAN and XU JI RUN Northeast University of Technology, Department of Mineral Engineering Shenyang. 110006,P. R. China ABSTRACT 1 is essential for a hydroeyclone to keep a stable flw field during its operation. In the paper,the unstable air core and its effect on the flow field in conventional hydroeyclones have been analysed and some new conclusions made. The research shows thatthe constant change of the air cote sige and the frequent oscillation ofthe air cote position, yielded mainly by the ‘turbulent feed pressure and the variable effective cone angle and much reinforced by the Ccompressibity and fluidness of the alt core, strengthen the turbulence of the three— imensional velocity str the regular distribution of the classified particles and eut down the separation efficiency in hydrocyclones. Then a new kind of hydrocyclone with no alr core Is reported, INTRODUCTION It Is no doubt that a stable flow field in a hydrocyclone isthe prerequisite forthe highly effective performance. The stability of the flow field isyon great extent, dependent uponthe feed parameters,such as the feed pressure, the feed concentration and so on,but the Internal structure ofthe flow field itself has also important effect on the stability. The former has been ‘enough recognized but lite attention so far has been paid to the later which is just the focus of our research in this paper. ‘As we know there is always a compound movement of the forced vortex and semi—free vortex within a conventional mineral processing hydroeycione. It is necessary here to point out first that the forced vortex is the inevitable outcome of the vortex movement (1) not the prerequisite for the hydroeyctone operation. Secondly, the forced vortex in a conventional hydrocyclone, in fact, is the alr core, Although former researcher thought that the forced sl52 vortex can extend to rather large area ouside the air core (2) authors’ theoretical analysis land experimental measurements (3) show that i s more reasonable to think the area between the air core and the semi—free vortex asthe transition of the two parts than as the forced vortex only. Then the istribution of the tangential velocity slong the radius n & conventional Ihydrocyclone can be illustrated in Fig. 1. Thirdly some researches (4,5) verify that no Separation process takes place within the forced vortex i. the air core, because the treated particles can not enter into the forced vortex where the radial velocity i zero in theory. ‘Therefore; the energy contributed to the ait core area is useless to the performance of the hydrocyclone. In addition, the instability is another important feature of the air core in conventional hhydroeyclones. As mentioned above, the forced vortex consists ofthe alr core inhaled from the apex. So we only need to take the alr core into account in order to investigate the unstable forced vortex. In following paragraphs, the unstable size shape and postion ofthe ar core will ‘be studied and the effetion of the instability on the flow field discussed then @ new mineral processing hydrocyloe with no forced vortex introduced. All experiments are undertaken in hhydroeyetones fille with elean water. INSTABILITY OF THE AIR CORE, Certainly there have been many researches on the air core but few people have studied fis instability. Boadway (B)observed the unstable air core with twisting shape but no further information was reported. Authors (4) pointed out thatthe unstable air core in hydrocyclones | harmful to classifiationbut did not give explanation in detail. Hereythe unstable size shape and postion of the air cre in conventional hydrocyetones wil be discussed. The diameter of the air core is obtained by photogrammetry. Unstable air core size ‘The size, tse, the diameter of the alr core, determined mainly by feod pressure and constructure parameters of the hydrocyclone is dificult to be Kept stable. Feed pressure, The dlameter ofthe air core isthe function of the feed presure in a given hnydroeyelone. Fig. 2 shows the general relation of the alr core dlameter and feed pressure. It can be Seen that the alr core does not appear until the feed pressure reaches a certain value Which varies with the geometrical parameters of the hydrocyclone,then the diameter increases rapidly withthe pressure and lastly becomes relatively stable when the feed pressure is greater ‘than a critical point which is about 0. 98 ber inthe experiments. The feed pressure in practice is usually 0, 49—0. 98 bar forthe hydrocyclones treating coarse materials and 0. 98—2. 94 ‘bar for that desling with fine ones(7)- At leat forthe first group of hydrocyelonesythe feed presoure Jue ie im the range where a small turbulence of the pressite wil bring cut « large change of the ait cote diameter. Unfortunately, the pressure turbulence is unavoidable in practive because of the pump performance and the variable feed concentration so tht the size ofthe forced vortex. the diameter of the air cote is always in the constant extension and3 contraction. ‘Cone angle, Cone angle isan important factor which determines the size of the air core and effects the stability. The variation of the air core diameter withthe cone angle is shown in Fg. 5 feos wiles a erent fat eat be ee yi-e Uve alr core Is I male at a certain cone angle (This fact may be explained in view of the energy transition in hhydrocyclones but is not important to the subject discussed here). In theory, the cane angle should have no effeetion on the stability of the air core within a hydrocyclone with given eeometric parameters but in fact,the effective cone angle,determined by the pile sutuation of the sold particles near the apex (See Fig. 4) is changable at all times and then the size ofthe sir core becomes unstable. ‘As for other geometrical parameters such as dlameters of apex and vortex finder will not be dlscussed here because of thelr little influence on the stability of the air core although they determine toa great extent the ‘Unstable air core shape and position In addition to the unstable size,an air core has also unfixed shape and space position. Fig. 5 illustrates how the shape ofthe air core changes from a cone toa column with the increase of, ‘eed pressure, Similar to the size,the shape of the air core becomes a relatively stable column conly when the feed pressure ges greater than the critical value (about 0.98 bar). Meanwhile tts easly observed with a transparent hydrocyclone in laboratory thatthe air core shakes laterally and the alr—liguid interface changes its position frequent. Air core and its compressibility and fluidness ‘The main external factors which result in the Instability of the air core, uch as the turbulent feed pressure and the unpredictable effective cone anale have been analvsed above but the internal factorsyi.e. the compressibility and fluidness of the air core have even mare Important influence on the stability of the forced vortex and should be paid enough attention. In a conventional hydrocyclone, the forced vortex made up of the air core is compressible. According to Pericleous et al. ,the alr concentration is inversely proportional to the radius Within the air care (5). The pressure distribution in radius is drawn qualitatively in Fig. 6 where the curve in liquid ares is obtained by referring to experimental results and that in forced vortex depicted according to theoretical analyses. As predicted, the gauge pressure is zero and the pressure gradient je maximum on the air—liguid interface where a discontinuty in pressure gradient also exists due to the difering fluid densities. Because of the compressibility of the air corethe high pressure gradient and its discontinuty,a small disturbance may bring ‘orth a rather large turbulence of the interface position, In the water—sealed hydrocyclone, the apex is sealed with water and the air core replaced by a water cate then the stability improved (A). However, the shaking of the forced vortex compoted of incompressible water is not climinated though limited to some extent, which indicates thatthe fluldness i lso an important factor which makes the forced vortex unstable. It is because of the compresibility and