Numerical study on oil and water two-phase flow in a cylindrical cyclone

Although traditional hydrocyclones are widely used in industries, there are few studies on cylindrical hydrocyclone. In this work, Euler-Euler multiphase approach and the Reynolds stress turbulence model (RSM) are applied to simulate the flow field characteristic of cylindrical cyclone. The result shows that a low pressure zone is formed in the inner part of cyclone and causes an upward flow. Velocity components distribution, tangential velocity, axial velocity and radial velocity have been calculated to study the effect of oil-water separation efficiency of cylindrical cyclone under the conditions of different flow split-ratio and non-dimensional separation acceleration. These results are helpful to design a separator system in the oil production.