Advances in the numerical simulation of hydrocyclone classification

Based on a general axisymmetric flow pattern computed using a commercial Computation Fluid Dynamics tool, a study of solid particle trajectories and classification mechanism was made in a low solid concentration case. The importance of taking into account the predominant effect of turbulence to get realistic classification curves was shown. From these observations, a probabilistic approach was developed and implemented in a very simple, purely theoretical model which gave astonishingly good results. (C) 1998 Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.