PRELIMINARY RESULTS OF LARGE EDDY SIMULATIONS OF A HYDROCYCLONE

Abstract

Subgrid-scale modeling, which characterizes Large Eddy Simulation (LES), has been used
to predict the behavior of a water-fed hydrocyclone operating without an air core. The
governing equations were solved by a fractional step method on a staggered grid. The
Smagorinsky subgrid-scale model was employed to account for turbulent effects. Numerical
results actually capture the main features of the flow pattern and agree reasonably well
with experiments, suggesting that LES represents an interesting alternative to classical
turbulence models when applied to the numerical solution of fluid flows within
hydrocyclones.