Numerical study of the effect of axial cyclone inlet velocity and geometrical parameters on separation efficiency and pressure drop

Abstract

The effects of cyclone separation length lm, outlet pipe inner diameter dw and swirl guide angle β were numerically studied for different inlet velocities: 2.5 m/s, 5 m/s, 7.5 m/s, 10 m/s in four cyclone models, using Ansys Fluent software. The fractional composition of the test dust was considered using the Rosin- Rammler model. Four cyclone models were tested for velocities in the range of 2.5–10 m/s and five particle size ranges. The mass proportion of particles in the cyclone and the filtration efficiency were determined, which is a novel method for evaluating cyclones. The lowest filtration efficiency, regardless of the cyclone model, was found, for particles in the 0–5 μm range, and the highest in the 20–40 μm range. Better results were obtained for higher values of lm smaller dw and β = 90o. Optimal performance and the highest value of the filtration quality factor is obtained by cyclone model B for υ0 = 5–10 m/s.