Desilters

Earlier on when we described the cutting action of the drill bit we learned about the drilling fluid or mud. The mud cools the bit and also removes the cuttings by carrying them up the hole outside the drill pipe. At the surface the mud runs over a number of moving screens, the shale shakers (Fig. 3.11) which remove the cutting for disposal. The fine particles which pass through the screens are then removed by desanders and desilters, usually hydrocyclones. 

Bowl Desilter The bowl desilter provides for separation areas vv ell bevond areas possible in bowl classifiers, in which larger sizes are limited bv mechanical design. Its use is in operations involving large flow volumes and fine separations. Rake tonnages can be great or small with a devv atering compartment to suit the conditions. 

This group includes facilities engaged in exploration for, and operation of oil and natural gas fields. Activities include locating, drilling and completing wells, operation of separators, emulsion breakers and desilting equipment, and all other activities up to the point of... 

In the bowl desilter the rotating blades in the bowl plow outward and discharge settled coarse material at the periphery, where it drops into the drainage compartment. This configuration does away with the long cantilevered rake construction necessary in bowl classifiers. 

Anonymous (1945). DonM. Forester. Engineering News-Record 134(Feb.8) 178. P Anonymous (1948). Forester, Don M. Who s who in engineering 6 664. Lewis New York. Forester, D.M. (1938). Desilting works for the All-American Canal. Civil Engineering 8(10) 649-652. 

Vetter, C.P. (1937). Why desilting works for the All-American Canal Engineering News-Record 118(Mar.04) 321-326. 

Hydrocyclones, also called desanders or desilters, operate by directing the water into a cone through a tangential inlet that imparts rotational movement to the water. Figures 4.8A and 4.8B show a hydrocyclone cone and an assembly of eight cones. 

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