A CFD Study on the Prediction of Cyclone Collection Efficiency

Abstract

This work presents a Computational Fluid Dynamics calculation to predict and to evaluate the effects of temperature, operating pressure and inlet velocity on the collection efficiency of gas cyclones. The numerical solutions were carried out using spreadsheet and commercial CFD code FLUENT 6.0. This paper also reviews four empirical models for the prediction of cyclone collection efficiency, namely Lapple [1 Lapple, C. E. 1951. Chem. Eng., 58: 144 [Google Scholar]], Koch and Licht [2 Koch, W. H. and Licht, W. 1977. Chem. Eng., 7: 80 [Google Scholar]], Li and Wang [3 Li, Enliang and Wang, Yingmin. 1989. A.I.Ch.E. J., 35: 666 [Google Scholar]], and Iozia and Leith [4 Iozia, D. L. and Leith, D. 1990. Aerosol Sci. Technol., 12: 598 [CSA][Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]]. All the predictions proved to be satisfactory when compared with the presented experimental data. The CFD simulations predict the cyclone cut-off size for all operating conditions with a deviation of 3.7% from the experimental data. Specifically, results obtained from the computer modelling exercise have demonstrated that CFD model is the best method of modelling the cyclones collection efficiency.