MODELING THE CYCLONE PERFORMANCE WITH A SIZE DEPENDENT ENTRAINMENT FACTOR

Conventional cyclone models use a particle size independent correction factor assumed equal to water recovery, R(f). Thus R(f) is the minimum predicted recovery to the cyclone underflow, at an infinitely small particle size. Ample industrial and laboratory data suggest that at a size range between 5 and 40-mu-m, recovery to the underflow is slightly below R(f). In this paper, a mathematical model that accounts for this phenomenon is proposed. The proposed and conventional models are compared for laboratory and industrial data. Possible mechanisms are discussed.