Hydroclone with inlet flow shield

A hydroclone (10) including a tank (12) with a fluid inlet (14), a filtered fluid outlet (16), an effluent outlet (18), a process fluid outlet (20) and a chamber (24) including an inner peripheral wall (22) centered about a central axis (X). The hydroclone further includes: i) a filter assembly (26) located within the chamber (24) which has an outer membrane surface (44) symmetrically located about the central axis (X) and encloses a filtrate chamber (46) that is in fluid communication with the filtered fluid outlet (16), and ii) a cleaning assembly (50) concentrically located and rotatably engaged about the membrane surface (44). A fluid pathway (28) extends from the fluid inlet (14) and defines a vortex region (25) between the inner peripheral wall (22) of the chamber (24) and the membrane surface (44) and is adapted for receiving incoming fluid. An inlet flow shield (58) is concentrically located about the filter assembly (26) and is adapted to block at least a portion of fluid flowing into the chamber (24) from the fluid inlet (14) from impacting the membrane surface (44).