CABRAL, E. M.; http://lattes.cnpq.br/1097271723526464; CABRAL, Endyara de Morais.
Resumen:
Hydrocyclones are equipment used in separation processes. They are
considered to be efficient, compact, safe, of simple construction and
maintenance, and low cost, when compared to other equipment used in similar
application. Such characteristics make them feasible to be applied in the oil
industry, especially in oil-water separation. Therefore, this work aims to
numerically analyze the separation process of the oil-water mixture in a
hydrocyclone, regarding its fluid dynamic aspect. Flow in steady-state regime,
two-phase, isothermal and incompressible was adopted. In the study, the
Eulerian approach using the mass and momentum conservation equations, and
the RNG k-ε turbulence model were used. For the numerical solution of the
governing equations, the Ansys CFX software was used. The effects of the inlet
velocity of the fluid mixture, volumetric fraction of oil in the feed stream and
diameter of oil drop, on the performance of the equipment were evaluated. From
the results obtained, it was found that, once the geometric configuration of the
equipment was fixed, an increase in the inlet velocity of the fluid mixture,
volumetric fraction of oil and the diameter of the oil drop increase the separation
efficiency of the equipment, reaching values greater than 98%.