Experimental numerical comparision of the pressure drop through an hydrocyclone

This paper shows the comparative results of an experimental and numerical study. The numerical simulations were performed with the ANSYS/Fluent software by means of CFD applying RNG k-epsilon and standard k-omega turbulence models. Experimental data were recorded of a hydrocyclone mounted on a test bench which operates with a water flow. The values extracted are the inlet pressure, outlet pressure, inlet velocity and outlet velocity. In order to investigate the pressure drop underwent by a hydrocyclone, a pressure assessment was carried out in different areas of the divice geometry. The results of the numerical study were compared and correlated with the experimental data. The numerical values report a percentage difference of 10.45% for the RNG k-epsilon model and 1.57% for the standard k-omega model, with respect to the experimentally obtained output pressure. The percentage difference between experimental and numerical pressure drop is 0.04% for standard k-omega model and 0.24% for RNG k-epsilon model. By studying finite volumes, the components of axial velocity, tangential velocity and turbulence intensity are calculated. These phenomena are studied simultaneously in this work. The turbulence models used to generate the corresponding analyzes in this work show similarity between both results and flow behavior. The concordance between the computational results and the experimental data is acceptable, so that the numerical simulations applied reach the purpose of this investigation.