Design of a Low-Pressure Hydrocyclone with Application for Fine Settleable Solid Removal Using Substitute Polystyrene Particles

By testing the separation performance for a fine settleable solid removal system in an aquaculture system using polystyrene particles as an experimental substitute, the optimal geometric dimensions for a Low-Pressure Hydrocyclone (LPH) were obtained. The design approach far the LPH took into consideration two inflow diameters (Di: 30, 50 mm), three overflow diameters (Do: 60, 70, 100 mm) and four cylinder lengths (Lc: 250, 345, 442, 575 mm), while the cylinder diameter (Dc) at 335 mm, the underflow diameter (Du) at 50 mm and the cone angle (${\theta}$) at $68^{\circ}$ were kept constant. The separation performances of 19 different dimension combinations of LPH were tested, ranging from 300 to 1200 ml/sec of inflow rate using substitute polystyrene particles (0.4-0.7 mm dia., ${\rho}_s=1.05g/cm^3$). These polystyrene particles exhibit a similar density and settling velocity to the fine fecal debris of the common carp. The total separation efficiency for the inflow rate ranged from a high of 97% to a low of 20%. Experimental results obtained by ANCOVA and the Tukey test (${\alpha}=0.05$) showed that the separation performances of the LPH were significantly affected (P<0.05) by the fi, Di, Do and Lc. The maximum separation performance was detected at a dimension combination of 30 mm of inflow diameter (Di), 60 mm of overflow diameter (Do), 442 and 575 mm of cylinder length (Lc). The dimension proportions were 0.09, 1.32-1.72, 0.18 and 0.15 for Di/Dc, Lc/Dc, Do/Dc and Du/Dc respectively.