Modeling the Multiphase Flow in Hydrocyclones Using the Coarse-Grained Volume of Fluid—Discrete Element Method and Mixture-Discrete Element Method Approaches

Hydrocyclones are widely used in various industries to classify particles mainly by size. In this work, two numerical models are developed to model the multiphase flow in hydrocyclones: one is a combined approach of volume of fluid (VOF) model and discrete element method (DEM) with the concept of the coarse-grained (CG) particle (CG VOF-DEM); the other is a combined approach of the Mixture model and DEM model with the CG concept (CG Mixture-DEM). The simulation results show that the CG VOF-DEM model is quantitatively applicable to relatively dilute flows while only qualitatively applicable to dense flows. On the other hand, the CG Mixture-DEM model can be quantitatively applicable to both dilute and dense flows. The work suggests that the CG Mixture-DEM approach could be a useful tool to estimate the performance of hydrocyclones.