A numerical study on pressure drop and separation efficiency of a new swirl tube cleaner

Abstract

In this paper, a new design of Swirl Tube Cleaner (STC) was introduced. The performance of an STC in terms of the separation efficiency and pressure drop was numerically investigated for different vane angles, vane lengths, and inlet velocities. The Reynolds stress turbulence model was used to detect the main flow structures of the highly swirling flow inside the STC. The discrete phase model that employs the Lagrangian frame of reference was utilized for particle tracking. The results are in good agreement with experimental data available in the literature. For all cases under investigation, the main flow characteristics of the STC consist of a hub vortex flow downstream of the back cone and tip vortices in the wake flow of the vanes. Around the initiation point of the vortex flow, the centrifugal accelerations are one order of magnitude higher than that of the upstream flow around vanes. The results show that the overall separation efficiency with the specified particle size distribution can reach 88% at a pressure drop lower than 250 [Pa] for the highest flow rate. Compared to traditional STCs, the new STC decreases the pressure drop by about 50% while enhancing overall separation efficiency by approximately 2%, considering the numerical accuracy.