Turbulence Models for Single Phase Flow Simulation of Cyclonic Flotation Columns

Cyclonic fields are important for cyclonic static microbubble flotation columns (FCSMCs), one of the most important developments in column flotation technology, particularly for separation of fine particles, where the internal flow field has enormous influence on flotation performance. PIV (particle image velocimetry) and CFD (computational fluid dynamics) are the most effective methods to study flow fields. However, data is insufficient for FCSMC flow fields and similar cyclonic equipment, with turbulence model simulations producing different views to measured data. This paper employs an endoscope and PIV to measure axial and cross sections for single-phase swirling flow fields in FCSMCs. We then compare various turbulence model simulations (Reynolds stress model (RSM), standard k-ε, realizable k-ε, and RNG (renormalization group) k-ε) to the measured data. The RSM (Reynolds stress model) predicts cyclonic flow field best in flotation columns with 16.22% average relative velocity deviation. Although the realizable k-ε model has less than 30% relative deviation in radial and tangential directions, axial deviations reach 78.11%. Standard k-ε and RNG k-ε models exhibited approximately 40% and 30% radial and tangential deviation, respectively, and cannot be used even for trend predictions for axial velocity. k-ε models are based on isotropic assumptions with semi-empirical formulas summarized from experiments, whereas RSM fundamentally considers laminar flow and Reynolds stress, and hence is more suitable for anisotropic performance. This study will contribute to flotation column and other cyclonic flow field equipment research.