New cyclone separator-based prefilter design for internal combustion engine applications. Part 1: Experiments and simulation

Abstract

A new design of a cyclone separator-based prefilter is proposed for applications in air filtration for tractor engines and other earth-moving equipment. This design differs from the conventional prefilter in having a unidirectional flow. As a consequence, the new design offers much lower pressure loss when compared with the conventional design. A model of the new design is fabricated, and experiments were conducted to evaluate pressure loss and dust collection efficiency. Results show that the new cyclone separator is better in terms of pressure drop and dust collection efficiency when compared with the conventional design Computational fluid dynamic simulations of the two-phase flow were performed using FLUENT, and the predictions are validated with the experimental data.