Simulation of Separation of Salt Solution from Crude Oil in a Hydrocyclone

Abstract

In this study, separating water from oil is studied numerically. In this simulation, the Reynolds Stress Model and the mixture multiphase model are used for coupling the velocity and pressure equations using the SIMPLE algorithm. The simulated geometry is taken from an experimental setup. It results that, in the case of the crude oil as the discrete phase, by increasing the diameter of the discrete phase (crude oil) droplets, the separation efficiency increases. If the diameter of the oil droplets is greater than 100 microns, the percentage of oil output from the spillway reaches 99.5%. In the case of the water phase as the discrete phase, if the water droplets size is considered equal to 200 microns, the water separation efficiency in the spillway reaches 69%.