Simulation of hydrocyclones for evaluating the flow of non-newtonian fluids

Abstract

In the petrochemical industry, hydrocycloning is used to separate particulate material from the well, together with drilling fluid, since not removing the gravel generated by the process can cause premature wear of the drill bit or blockage of the well. This study aims to perform a numerical simulation, of a hydrocyclone operating with non-Newtonian fluid, evaluating the parameters of total efficiency and ratio fluid and comparing the difference in the use of a non-Newtonian fluid and a Newtonian fluid of the same density. For this, five geometries with different underflow diameters were constructed and, after their simulation, results of velocity, viscosity and pressure profiles were obtained, then the injection of particles was carried out to obtain the values of total efficiency. The values of total efficiency and ratio fluid were compared with the literature. In general, for total efficiency, the results of the relative errors obtained, when compared with the reference work, presented satisfactory values, with deviations less than or equal to 11%. For the values of fluid ratio, it was possible to obtain two satisfactory results, in the case of geometry 4 and 5, which presented relative errors of 2.89% and 15.07%, respectively. Moreover, by comparing the operation with non-Newtonian and Newtonian fluids, it was possible to observe the influence of the variation in viscosity in the separation process. The results found allowed the conclusion that the CFD analysis proved to be effective in predicting the flow of non-Newtonian fluid in hydrocyclones.