Chemical Engineering and Processing 43 (2004) 1441–1448

Enhancement of hydrocyclone separation performance

by eliminating the air core
Liang-Yin Chu a,∗ , Wei Yu a , Guang-Jin Wang a , Xian-Tao Zhou a ,
Wen-Mei Chen a , Guang-Qing Dai b
a School of Chemical Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan 610065, China
b State Key Laboratory of Hydraulics on High-Speed Flows, Chengdu, Sichuan 610065, China

Received 21 July 2003; received in revised form2613February

January 2004
2004; accepted 13 January 2004
Available online

Abstract

A new hydrocyclone was designed with a solid core fixed along the central axis in this study. By introducing the solid core, the air core inside
the hydrocyclone could be eliminated effectively. Comprehensive effects of eliminating the air core by the solid core on the hydrocyclone
performance indices were experimentally investigated. To examine the influence mechanism of air core on the separation performance, a Laser
Doppler Anemometer (LDA) was used to investigate the turbulent flow field inside hydrocyclones with and without air cores. The results
showed that the radial and axial velocity components in the area near the entrance of the vortex finder, and the radial and axial turbulence
components were all reduced by eliminating the air core, i.e. the flow field characteristics inside the hydrocyclone with solid core became
more suitable for the separation process. By replacing the air core with solid core, the hydrocyclone separation performance was improved
effectively. Comparing the hydrocyclones with air core and solid core, it was proved to be featured with higher total separation efficiency,
larger reduced separation efficiency, smaller corrected cut size and higher separation sharpness, although the hydrocyclone cone shape changed
from common type, to parabola type, and to hyperbola type. By increasing the inner space of the hydrocyclone cone, the improvement of
separation performance became more remarkable.
© 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Hydrocyclone; Separation; Turbulence; Powder technology; Hydrodynamics

1. Introduction process in the common hydrocyclone is always accompa-

Hydrocyclones are getting more and more interest from
various industries, because of their obvious advantages such
as simple structure, low cost, large capacity and small vol-
ume. Besides a large amount of applications in mineral pro-
cessing, hydrocyclone separation technique has been used
in an increasing number of applications recently in environ-
mental engineering, petrochemical engineering, food engi-
neering, electrochemical engineering, bioengineering, pulp-
ing process and so on.
It is well known that the hydrocyclone separation perfor-
mance is determined by the fluid flow characteristics inside
the hydrocyclone. Because of the inherent fluid flow char-
acteristics inside the common hydrocyclone, the separation
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +86-28-8546-0682;
fax: +86-28-8540-4976.
E-mail address: chuly@scu.edu.cn (L.-Y. Chu).
nied by some inherent disadvantages, such as unsatisfactory
separation efficiency and sharpness [1]. Although the geom-
etry and operation of hydrocyclones is simple in nature, ex-
plaining the detailed mechanisms by which they work has
proved to be extremely complicated [2–4]. In the conven-
tional hydrocyclone, there generally exist outer and inner
helical flows, a circulation flow, a short-circuit flow and an
air core. The air core has a large effect on the hydrocyclone
flow field and the separation performance; consequently a
lot of researches have been made on it previously [5–15].
Among the previous investigations, most of them were
just concerned with the prediction and measurement of the
air-core diameter and shape [5–11]. Only a few studies have
been made on the influence of the air core on hydrocy-
clone separation performance. Xu et al. [12] reported that
the hydrocyclone efficiency could be improved by eliminat-
ing the forced vortex (the forced vortex inside the hydro-
cyclone including air core and liquid forced vortex) with a

0255-2701/$ – see front matter © 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.cep.2004.01.002
1442 L.-Y. Chu et al. / Chemical Engineering and Processing 43 (2004) 1441–1448

solid rod inserted from the vortex finder into the hydrocy-
clone; however, Lee and Williams [13] reported an oppo-
site result that the solid rod degraded the hydrocyclone ef-
ficiency. Recently, the authors have investigated the effects
of various central inserts on hydrocyclone separation effi-
ciency [14,15]. The results also showed that the insertion
of a cylindrical rod could improve the separation efficiency
[14]. Why two opposite results came out about the effect of
replacing the air core with a solid rod on the hydrocyclone
efficiency? To answer the question, a further systematical
investigation should be carried out on both the flow field and
the separation performance of the hydrocyclone. However,
a comprehensive understanding of the influence of the air
core on both the flow field characteristics inside the hydro-
cyclone and the hydrocyclone separation performance is still
lacking.
The objective of this study is to understand the compre-
hensive effect of the air core on both the flow field and the
separation performance of hydrocyclones by replacing the
air core with a solid core. The structure design of the solid
core will be different from those reported previously. Hy-
drocyclones with different cone shapes will be also intro-
duced in this study to ascertain the influence behavior of the
air core on the performance. A Laser Doppler Anemometer
(LDA) will be used to investigate the turbulent flow field
inside hydrocyclones with and without air cores, in order Fig. 1. Geometry of the common type hydrocyclone.
to probe into the influence mechanism of the existence of
air core on the performance. The hydrocyclone performance
indices will include total separation efficiency, reduced sep-
aration efficiency, cut size, separation sharpness, flow ratio body supports in the second method might certainly destroy
and capacity, so that useful guidance could be obtained for the regular flow field inside the hydrocyclone. Therefore, a
designing efficient hydrocyclones. new fixation method was developed in this study. The solid
core was inserted through the hydrocyclone via the vortex
finder and the underflow pipe, and then fixed outside the
2. Experimental overflow and underflow chambers as illustrated in Fig. 2(b),
so that the rod could be fixed stably and the main flow field
2.1. Apparatus inside the hydrocyclone will not be disturbed. The diameter
of the solid rod was selected as 6 mm to ensure no air core
A conventional type hydrocyclone was designed accord- existed any more.
ing to Rietema’s optimum geometry for separation [16]. The To investigate the influence behavior of the air core on the
hydrocyclone geometry is shown in Fig. 1. With the same ge- hydrocyclone performance in more details, hydrocyclones
ometric parameters, a new hydrocyclone was designed with with common type cone, parabola type cone and hyperbola
a solid core as shown in Fig. 2(b). The fixation of the solid type cone were designed as illustrated in Fig. 2. Except
core here was designed different from those reported in pre- the shape of the cone, other geometric parameters of these
vious investigations. Previously two main fixation methods hydrocyclones were all the same. The lengths of the cone
were reported as follows. (1) The solid core was just insert- sections were all 177.2 mm. For the parabola type cone, the
ing into the hydrocyclone from the vortex finder and then generatrix equation was designed as follows:
fixing the solid core outside the vortex finder, that is, the
Z = 0.003272r 3 − 0.823 (1)
solid core was fixed in the manner of a cantilever [12]; and
(2) the solid core was positioned along the central axis aided where, the coordinate center was chosen at the center of
by vortex finder and body supports inside the hydrocyclone, the smaller end of cone part; Z stands for the axial position
in which the body supports were used to hold the solid rod (mm); and r for the radial position (mm).
centrally and reduce excessive vibration of the rod at lower For the hyperbola type cone, the equation of the generatrix
parts of the hydrocyclone [13]. Using the first method, it was designed as
might be difficult to ensure the solid core acting as a station-
ary core rod because of the serious vibration; however, the Z = 1259.58r −0.1 − 876.67 (2)
 L.-Y. Chu et al. / Chemical Engineering and Processing 43 (2004) 1441–1448 1443

Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of hydrocyclones. (a) Common type hydrocyclone (No. C10); (b) new type hydrocyclone designed with a solid core (No.
C11); (c) hydrocyclone with a parabola type cone (No. C20); (d) hydrocyclone with a parabola type cone and a solid core (No. C21); (e) hydrocyclone
with a hyperbola type cone (No. C30); and (f) hydrocyclone with a hyperbola type cone and a solid core (No. C31).

where, the coordinate center was at the center of the larger was 3 mm. Constant inlet pressure of 80 kPa was maintained
end of cone part, and Z and r are the same as those in in the whole experiments.
Eq. (1).
To observe the air core condition inside the hydrocy- 2.3. Separation experiments
clones, the hydrocyclones were all made of transparent Per-
spex. The solid rods were made of stainless steel, and the Solid particles were made of quartz with density of
diameters were all 6 mm. 2650 kg/m3 . The liquid phase was water. Particle size dis-
tribution was measured by a particle size analyzer (MAR-
2.2. Measurement of the flow field inside VERN 2000, UK), and that of the feed is shown in Fig. 3.
hydrocyclones The solid weight concentration of the feed slurry was
0.8 wt.% in all the separation experiments. Before the sepa-
A laser Doppler anemometer (2D-LDA-10, Dantec Elek- ration process, feed slurry with 0.8 wt.% solid concentration
tronik, Denmark) was used to measure the flow fields inside was prepared by adding 1.6 kg of solid particles of quartz
hydrocyclones with and without air core, in order to pro- into 200 kg of water. To maintain the solid concentration
vide some fundamental data for investigating the influence constantly in the separation process, samples were taken
of the air core on hydrocyclone performance. The velocity from both underflow and overflow with the same time
was measured from the frequency of the Doppler burst. In
the measurements, an optical compensating box was fixed
around the hydrocyclone. The optical compensating boxing
was of rectangular cross section and was filled with wa-
ter. The hydrocyclone and the compensating box were both
made of transparent Perspex and polished. The optical er-
ror was rectified during the measuring. The radial and ax-
ial components of time-averaged velocity and turbulence at
certain positions inside hydrocyclones with and without air
core were measured.
Liquid used in the experiments was water, in which some
special tracing particles were added. The measured points
inside the hydrocyclone were a series of netted points. The
axial position of the measured points or the axial distance
from top was 10, 35, 60, 85, 110, 145, 170, 195, and 220 mm.
The radial step of the measured points in the hydrocyclone Fig. 3. Particle size distribution of the feed slurry.
1444 L.-Y. Chu et al. / Chemical Engineering and Processing 43 (2004) 1441–1448

interval. A centrifugal pump was used in the experiments. 2.4. Definition of hydrocyclone performance indices
The inlet pressure was also kept at 80 kPa constantly.
The mass flow rates and volume flow rates of the feed 2.4.1. Separation efficiency
slurry, overflow and underflow of hydrocyclone were mea- Total separation efficiency is defined by the following
sured simultaneously. To minimize the experimental errors, equation:
the measurements carried out 3–5 times and the arithmeti- Gu Cu
cally averaged values were taken as the results. To check Et = (3)
G e Ce
the reliability of the mass balance, samples were simultane-
ously taken from all the feed, underflow and overflow, and where Gu and Ge are the mass flows of underflow and feed,
then the solid weight concentrations and the particle size respectively, and Cu and Ce are the solid weight concentra-
distributions of the samples were measured. tions of underflow and feed.

Fig. 4. Comparison of flow field characteristics inside hydrocyclones with and without air core. (䊊) With air core; (䊉) with solid core.
 L.-Y. Chu et al. / Chemical Engineering and Processing 43 (2004) 1441–1448
Reduced separation efficiency is defined as
Et − Rf
Et = (4)
1 − Rf
where, Et is the reduced separation efficiency, Rf is called
the flow ratio that is the ratio of volume flow of underflow
to that of feed, and Et is the total separation efficiency.
2.4.2. Corrected cut size
Grade efficiency is featured with probability characteris-
tics, and the grade efficiency curve is also called as prob-
ability distribution curve because the curve stands for the
probability that the particles with a certain size grade could
be separated into underflow from the feed of hydrocyclone.
Therefore, according to the grade efficiency curve, the par-
ticle size grade related to the grade efficiency of 50% is a
size grade of the particles with 50% separation probability,
which is called cut size d50 [2]. The corresponding particle
size related to the reduced grade efficiency is called cor-
rected cut size d50C .
2.4.3. Separation sharpness
Separation sharpness or so-called classification sharpness
depends on the steepness of the grade efficiency curve. A
quite common way to measure the separation sharpness is to
take a ratio of two sizes corresponding to two different per-
centages (symmetrical around 50%) on the grade efficiency
curve. In this study, the separation sharpness is defined as
follows:
d30C

H(30/70) = (5)
d70C

where H(30/70) stands for the separation sharpness, and d30C
and d70C for the two sizes corresponding to 30 and 70% on
the reduced grade efficiency curve, respectively. The larger
the separation sharpness, the better the separation or classi-
fication process.
2.4.4. Capacity
Capacity or so-called throughput is the feed flow rate of
the hydrocyclone.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Flow field characteristics inside hydrocyclones with
and without air core
The comparison of the time-averaged velocity and tur-
bulence profiles inside the hydrocyclones with air core and
with solid core is shown in Fig. 4. With eliminating the air
core by solid core, the axial velocity components in the cen-
tral area nearby the entrance of the vortex finder become
smaller, while those in other areas almost remains at the
same magnitude level. Fig. 5 shows the schematic illustra-
tion of flow patterns inside hydrocyclones with air core and
1445
Fig. 5. Schematic illustration of flow patterns inside hydrocyclones with
and without air core. (a) With air core; (b) with solid core.
with solid core. The air in the air core always moved up-
wards, therefore, an upward drag force was acted on the liq-
uid at the liquid/air interface by the air; on the other hand,
when the air core was replaced by a solid core, not only
was the above-mentioned upward drag force disappeared,
but also a downward friction force was acted on the liquid
at the liquid/solid interface by the solid core. As a result, the
upward axial velocity of liquid in the central area decreased
when the air core was replaced with a solid core. The de-
crease of the axial velocity of fluid nearby the entrance of
vortex finder is beneficial to reducing the mixing of coarse
particles in overflow products.
Compared with that in the conventional hydrocyclone
with air core, the magnitude of the radial velocity com-
ponents in the hydrocyclone with solid core is obviously
smaller, although the distribution profiles are similar. Be-
cause the overflow discharge velocity of liquid was heavily
dependent on the upward axial velocity of liquid at the en-
trance of the vortex finder, the solid core reduced the over-
flow discharge rate because of the decrease of the upward
axial velocity of liquid at the entrance of the vortex finder.
As a result, the radial velocity of liquid near the entrance
of vortex finder decreased. The reduction in radial velocity
components is advantageous for separating fine particles,
because the drag forces, which act towards the center, are
reduced.
Compared with those in the hydrocyclone with air core,
both the radial and axial turbulence components in the hy-
drocyclone with solid core reduced generally. Especially
in the cone section of hydrocyclone, the radial turbulence
components reduced remarkably. Because of the shaking
and rocking of the air core inside the conventional hydro-
cyclone, the symmetry and the equilibrium of the flow field
for separation is negatively affected. By replacing the air
core with solid core, the flow field characteristics inside
1446 L.-Y. Chu et al. / Chemical Engineering and Processing 43 (2004) 1441–1448
Fig. 6. Reduced grade efficiency curves of different hydrocyclones.
the hydrocyclone was stabilized, and then the turbulence
reduced. In a more stable flow field, the separation process
would be sharper. That is to say, the separation performance
could be enhanced by eliminating the air core.
3.2. Effect of the air core on hydrocyclone separation
performance
The reduced grade efficiency curves of different hydrocy-
clones with and without air core are illustrated in Fig. 6, and
the effects of air core on hydrocyclone performance indices
are shown in Fig. 7.
Compared with those hydrocyclones with air core, the hy-
drocyclones with solid core were all featured with higher
total separation efficiency, higher reduced separation effi-
ciency, smaller corrected cut size, and higher separation
sharpness, no matter what kind of cone shape was intro-
duced. That is the experimental results showed that the re-
placement of the air core by the solid core improved the
hydrocyclone separation performance.
Compared with that of the hydrocyclone with common
type cone, the performance improvement degree of the hy-
drocyclone with parabola type cone was more remarkable;
on the other hand, that of the hydrocyclone with hyperbola
cone was lower. This verified that the improvement of the
hydrocyclone separation performance indices was resulted
from replacing the air core by the solid core.
In the hydrocyclone with parabola cone, the inner space
of the lower part was larger, therefore, the fluctuation of
the size and position of the air core was more serious,
i.e. the rocking and shape changing of the air core were
more remarkable. With the inner space of the hydrocy-
clone cone section decreasing, the shape and size fluctua-
tion and the rocking of the air core weakened. The rock-
ing and shaking of the air core might cause the instability
and degrade the asymmetry and equilibrium of the liquid
flow field inside the hydrocyclone. After eliminating the air
core by inserting solid core, the flow field inside the hy-
drocyclone could be stabilized. That is to say, the nega-
tive effect of the air core on the separation performance of
the hydrocyclone with parabola cone should be the largest,
that of the hydrocyclone with hyperbola cone should be the
smallest, and that of the hydrocyclone with common cone
should lay in the middle. Consequently, the improvement
degree of the separation performance indices of the hydro-
cyclone with parabola cone should be the largest by remov-
ing the air core, and that with common cone should take the
second place, and that with hyperbola cone should be the
lowest.
Why did an opposite result come out in the previous
experimental investigations reported by Lee and Williams
[13]? A most probable explanation could be made as fol-
lows. The negative effect on the separation efficiency might
be mainly due to their “body supports” designed for fixing
the solid rod. The main flow field inside the hydrocyclone
might be disturbed by the body supports, and the negative
effect of this on the separation efficiency might be more re-
markable than the positive effect of eliminating the air core.
As a result, the hydrocyclone separation efficiency was not
improved, but deteriorated. This indicates that, in order to
improve the separation efficiency by replacing the air core
with solid insert, the main nature of the liquid flow field
should not be disturbed.
The experimental results showed that, the replacement of
the air core by solid core always led to larger flow ratio
and lower capacity in this study. In the central area, both
the radial and axial velocity components of liquid flowing
towards the vortex finder were reduced by replacing the air
core with solid core. As a result, the overflow flowrate de-
creased. Correspondingly, the relative volume flowrate ratio
of underflow to feed increased. The increase in the flow ra-
tio verified again that the flow field inside the hydrocyclone
was stabilized by eliminating the air core but not by reduc-
ing the cross section of the underflow, because more under-
flow discharged when the air core was replaced by the solid
core. In fact, the solid core did not decrease the cross sec-
tion area for the overflow and underflow discharges remark-
ably, because the solid core just occupied the space where
the air core existed (as illustrated in Fig. 5). The reasons
for the lower capacity might be explained as follows. The
overflow rate, which occupied the main part of the total liq-
uid flow, decreased due to the above-mentioned cause, i.e.
the overflow discharge velocity was decreased by the solid
core. Therefore, a lower capacity was resulted from the de-
crease of the overflow rate. As to the influence degree of
replacing the air core by a solid core on the flow rates, it
was the most remarkable in the hydrocyclone with a com-
mon type cone, and the smallest in that with a parabola type
cone.
In summary, by replacing the air core with solid core, the
flow field characteristics inside the hydrocyclone became
more suitable for separation, which resulted in higher sepa-
ration efficiency and sharpness.
 L.-Y. Chu et al. / Chemical Engineering and Processing 43 (2004) 1441–1448 1447

Fig. 7. Performance comparison between hydrocyclones with and without air core. (a) Total separation efficiency; (b) reduced separation efficiency; (c)
corrected cut size; (d) separation sharpness; (e) flow ratio; and (f) capacity.

4. Conclusions
By introducing a solid core, the air core inside the hydro-
cyclone was eliminated effectively. By eliminating the air
core, the radial and axial velocity components in the area
that just under the vortex finder, and the radial and axial
turbulence components were all reduced, i.e. the flow field
characteristics inside the hydrocyclone became more benefi-
cial for the separation process. The separation performance
of the hydrocyclone was improved effectively by elimi-
nating the air core with a solid core. Compared with the
common type hydrocyclone with air core, the hydrocyclone
1448 L.-Y. Chu et al. / Chemical Engineering and Processing 43 (2004) 1441–1448

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