THERMAL FLUID DYNAMICS OF THE SEPARATION WATER/HEAVY

OIL AND ULTRA-VISCOUS VIA HYDROCYCLONE: NUMERICAL SIMULATION

Josedite S. Souza*, Fabiana P. M. Farias††, Severino R. de Farias Neto†, Antonio G. B. de Lima††

*
Federal University of Campina Grande
UFCG/CCT/UAEQ, Av: Aprígio Veloso, 882 Bodocongó Campina Grande, PB Brazil
e-mail: eng. josedite@hotmail.com
†
Federal University of Campina Grande
UFCG/CCT/UAEQ, Av: Aprígio Veloso, 882 Bodocongó Campina Grande, PB Brazil
e-mail: fariasn@deq.ufcg.edu.br
††
Federal University of Campina Grande
UFCG/CCT/UAEM, Av: Aprígio Veloso, 882 Bodocongó Campina Grande, PB Brazil
e-mail: gilson@dem.ufcg.edu.br

ABSTRACT

The effluent from the production of oil contains concentrations that exceed the amounts allowed by
the law of environmental agencies. Therefore, the oil / water separation using specific devices is
required. The hydrocyclone is notable for its simplicity and efficiency of separation, which is affected
by various geometric and fluid-dynamic parameters [1,2,3]. In this context, the purpose of this study
is to evaluate the thermo fluid separation process of water / heavy oil and ultra-viscous via
hydrocyclone A mathematical model was developed to simulate the non isothermal separation
process of the water / heavy oil and ultra-heavy viscous in a hydrocyclone that considers flow
incompressible, viscous and turbulent, and the Eulerian-Eulerian model for the interface of the phases
involved (water / heavy oil). A RNG k-ε turbulent model have been used because is more accurate
and reliable to describe the flow than the k-ε turbulent model [4]. The numerical simulations were
carried out on the CFX11® software. The results of the behavior of flow in hidrodiclone and
separation efficiency are presented and analyzed.

References

[1] Svarovsky,L., 2000. “Solid-Liquid Separation”, Chemical Engineering Series, 4nd ed.,
Butterworths, London

[2] Wang, B. and Yu, A.B., 2006. Numerical study of particle-fluid flow in hydrocyclones with
different body dimensions, Minerals Engineering, Vol.19, pp 1022-1033.

[3] Husveg, T., Rambeau, O., Drengstig, T., Bilstad, T., 2007. Performance of deoling hydrocyclone
during variables flow rates. Minerals Engineering Vol. 20, pp. 368-379.

[4] Delgadillo,. J. A. and Rajamani R. K., 2005. “A comparative study of three turbulence-closure
models for the hydrocyclone problem” Int. J. Miner. Process. Vol 77, pp 217-230.