Design characteristics of the hydrocyclone for the recovery of coal fines

Technical Report · Sat Dec 31 23:00:00 EST 1983

OSTI ID:6229575

Davis, P K; Clendenin, H B; Peter, M M

The relevant design parameters and flow variables of the standard hydrocyclone have been identified. Two experimental systems have been designed and constructed so that the flow rate, inlet area, vortex finder length and diameter, underflow diameter, length of hydrocyclone chamber and cone angle can all be varied, one at a time, while all the other variables are held constant. Dimensional analysis was used to guide the experiments. Initially spheres were used to model solid particles. Data has been taken using spheres ranging in size from 0.03175 m to 0.09525 m with specific gravities varying from 1.05 to 2.10. This range of specific gravities was chosen so as to contain the specific gravity range of coal which varies from 1.2 to 1.6. The specific gravities of the waste materials in gob (clay, shale, pyrite and sandstone) are greater than 2.00. It was later shown that the data taken using spheres compare well with random shaped coal particles with approximately the same mean diameters as the spheres. The sphere data can be used to select a hydrocyclone configuration to perform a specific separation task. In this research, the sphere data was used as a guide to select a configuration to separate coal fines from gob material. Good coal fines recovery from gob samples has been achieved on a batch basis. An an example, Table 1 gives data from one sample showing a combined recovery of 99% by weight with a product rating of 0.95. Another significant finding in this research is that dynamic similitude as predicted by dimensional analysis can be verified using the two experimental systems with hydrocyclones with different diameters. Thus the data taken can be used to scale up or down as the need arises. 10 references, 13 figures, 1 table.

• Research Organization: Southern Illinois Univ., Carbondale (USA). Dept. of Engineering Mechanics and Materials
• DOE Contract Number: FG22-81PC40807
• OSTI ID: 6229575
• Report Number(s): CONF-8409193-1; ON: DE85005066
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT
013000* -- Coal
Lignite
& Peat-- Transport
Handling
& Storage
COAL FINES
CONCENTRATORS
CONFIGURATION
CYCLONE SEPARATORS
DATA
DESIGN
EQUIPMENT
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FLUID FLOW
INERTIAL SEPARATORS
INFORMATION
NUMERICAL DATA
OPTIMIZATION
PARTICLE SIZE
PERFORMANCE TESTING
POLLUTION CONTROL EQUIPMENT
RECOVERY
SEPARATION EQUIPMENT
SEPARATION PROCESSES
SIMULATION
SIZE
SPHERES
TESTING