Numerical investigation on the swirling vortical characteristics of a Stairmand cyclone separator with slotted vortex finder

Abstract

The slotted vortex finder (SVF) represents a novelly modified cyclone vortex finder, which is validated to be valuable and prospective for industrial applications. The main purpose of present study is to illustrate the effect of slotted vortex finder on the swirling turbulent flow characteristics of cyclone separator in comparison with conventional vortex finder (CVF). Based on three cyclone models (CVF, SVF_D1, SVF_D2), the differences of swirling vortical characteristics between SVF and CVF models are comprehensively tested and the influence of SVF insertion length on the cyclone performance was discussed. The overall detailed features and variations of flow pattern, such as velocity profile distribution, unsteady particle tracking, swirl number comparison and special flow phenomena of vortex eccentricity in the whole cyclone separator body, are analyzed in detail. Specifically, The SVF_D2 model could improve the cyclone separation efficiency (about 20% reduction of pressure drop and 4.2% reduction of cut off size) and also reduce 40% of central vortex rotation frequency compared with CVF model at vin = 16.1 m/s. The current study is beneficial to further clarify the influence of SVF on the mechanism of the particle separation motion in cyclone separator and identify the characterization differences between traditional cyclone separator and cyclone with installation of SVF.