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.