Abstract
The classification performance of a novel hydro-cyclone with a cone part fabricated by porous sintered metal was evaluated. The clean air injection through the porous cone was proposed as a new method to control the classification performance. As a result, when the flow rate of the main slurry was relatively low, the introduction of adequate clean air through the porous cone could reduce the cut size without compromising the separation accuracy. It may be caused by an increase in the flow velocity of the slurry near the cyclone cone surface induced by fine bubbles which were made by the clean air. However, the excessive injection of clean air degraded both the cut size and the separation accuracy. By contrast, in the case of the relatively high flow rate of the slurry, the injection of the clean air had little influence on the classification performance.
