The flow field datributions of the hydrocyclone such as static pressure, tangential velocity and turbulent dissipation rate by loading PBM model and the conventional model, respectively. The results show that the two methods are approximately the same in the prediction of flow field characterics. Therefore, the CFD numerical simulation method based on the PBM model was used to simulate the separation characteristics of the hydrocyclone numerically. And the effects of the factors such as inlet flow rate, overflow split ratio, oil phase viscosity and density on the oil droplet size distribution and oil?water separation characteristics are explored. The results indicate that the separation efficiency of hydrocyclone increases firstly and then decreases with the rising of the inlet flow rate, and reaches a maximum efficiency of 98% as the processing capacity is 4 m3/h; the increase of the overflow split ratio is beneficial to improve separation efficiency; the radial force on the oil droplets decreases with the increasing of the viscosity of the oil phase, preventing aggregation and significantly reducing the separation efficiency as well; the higher density of the oil phase leads to larger the average oil droplet diameter of the tail pipe section and a reduced separation efficiency. Above all, the CFD?PBM numerical simulation method can be used to investigate the particle size distribution and variation characteristics of oil droplets in hydrocyclone, in order to reveal the separation mechanism of the hydrocyclone from different scales.
