Experimental and computational fluid dynamics study on the effects of erosion spiral angle of the cone on cyclone separator performance

Abstract

In order to improve the cyclone anti-erosion design and performance, the research on the influences of erosion spiral angle on cyclone flow field and separation performance was conducted by numerical simulations using computational fluid dynamics technique with the aid of the Ansys-Fluent 19.2 software and experiments. Based on numerical simulations, Reynolds stress model was used to describe the variation of airflow field, and Oka erosion model was utilized to make predictions about the cyclone wall erosion. The models were verified by the experimental data, ensuring the accuracy of results in this work. The results reveal that the erosion of fine particles on the cyclone wall is caused by the random interaction, and as the particle size increases, the location of collision between the particle and cyclone wall is closer to the air inlet. The cyclone cylinder in inlet channel front and the bottom of the cone is prone to the structural size deformation by the cyclone wall erosion. The cyclone wall erosion enhances the synergistic effect of the secondary flow inside the cyclone separation space, and the cyclone flow field stability further decreases as the increase in the erosion spiral angle at the cone bottom, resulting in a sharp decline in the cyclone performance. Compared with the cyclone without erosion, as the erosion spiral angle is 30°, the size of completely separated particles increases from 4 to 8 μm, the cut size increases from 1.33 to 1.6 μm, and the pressure drop is 420.73 Pa with a decrease in about 35.44%.