Effect of Spiral Guide Groove Structure on Flow Field and Separation Performance of Cyclone Clarifiers

This paper addresses the problem of high fine particle content in the overflow and insufficient separation efficiency of traditional cyclone clarifiers. A cyclone clarifier with a spiral guide groove is proposed. A comparative numerical simulation analyzes the flow field characteristics and separation performance inside traditional and spiral guide groove cyclone clarifiers. Comparing the flow fields shows that the spiral guide groove increases tangential velocity at the inlet, centrifugal force increases, axial velocity decreases, separation time increases, and separation efficiency improves. The spiral guide groove forces the fluid to follow an optimized path. It reduces circulating flows and vortices. The flow field becomes more uniform and stable. In the cone-plate region, streamlines are dense and axial velocity is low. This favors particle settling. In the underflow region, turbulent kinetic energy and the interaction between inner and outer vortices decrease. This reduces the number of particles entering the overflow pipe with the inner vortex. Compared to the traditional cyclone clarifier, the spiral guide groove cyclone clarifier effectively improves particle removal efficiency. The removal efficiency increases by 6.8%. The improvement effect varies for different particle sizes. The removal efficiency improvement is greatest for 15–20 μm particles. It effectively improves the water quality of the overflow outlet.