Performance Investigation of Different Hydro-cyclones in Sand Removal from Water Wells: A Laboratory Study

This study investigates the amount of suspended solid particles in three drinking water wells, conducted several times per day in the city of Mashhad. The results have also been used for the review and optimization of tested hydro-cyclones. For this purpose, 18 different hydro-cyclones, based on the experimental design process of the Taguchi method, were designed and the affecting factors were investigated. These factors include inlet diameter, overflow diameter, apex diameter, body diameter of the hydro-cyclone, the cylindrical height, and the total height of the hydro-cyclone. For the optimization process, the maximum concentration observed within all samples from the Mashhad wells, equating to 100 mg per liter was used. The results of the laboratory study, for two repeats, showed that in optimum conditions, the mass removal efficiency of the suspended solids was up to 97.2 ± 1.1 percent. In these circumstances, the ratio of inlet and overflow diameter size to the hydro-cyclone diameter size was similar and equivalent to 0.225, and the apex diameter size ratio to the hydro-cyclone diameter size was 0.15. Also, the ratio of cylindrical and overflow height to the total height of the hydro-cyclone were 0.12 and 0.08 respectively.