Abstract
The particle concentration inside a cyclone separator at different operation parameters was simulated with the FLUENT software. The Advanced Reynolds Stress Model (ARSM) was used in gas phase turbulence modeling. Stochastic Particle Tracking Model (SPTM) and the Particle-Source-In-Cell (PSIC) method were adopted for particles computing. The interaction between particles and the gas phase was also taken into account. The numerical simulation results were in agreement with the experimental data. The simulation revealed that an unsteady spiral dust strand appeared near the cyclone wall and a non-axi-symmetrical dust ring appeared in the annular space and under the cover plate of the cyclone. There were two regions in the radial particle concentration distribution, in which particle concentration was low in the inner region (r/R⩽0.75) and increased greatly in the outer region (r/R>0.75). Large particles generally had higher concentration in the near-wall region and small particles had higher concentration in the inner swirling flow region. The axial distribution of particle concentration in the inner swirling flow (r/R⩽0.3) region showed that there existed serious fine particle entrainment within the height of 0.5D above the dust discharge port and a short-cut flow at a distance of about 0.25D below the entrance of the vortex finder. The dimensionless concentration in the high-concentration region increased obviously in the upper part of the cyclone separation space when inlet particle loading was large. With increasing gas temperature, the particle separation ability of the cyclone was obviously weakened.
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Supported by the National Key Project of Basic Research of the Ministry for Science and Technology of P.R. China (Grant No. 2005CB22120103)
Xue Xiaohu was born in 1965. He received his PhD from the China University of Petroleum (Beijing) in 2005. As a Professorial Senior Engineer, he now works at China National Petroleum Corporation Services & Engineering Ltd, with his interests in the field of numerical simulation of gas-particle two-phase flow.
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Xue, X., Sun, G., Wan, G. et al. Numerical simulation of particle concentration in a gas cyclone separator. Pet. Sci. 4, 76–83 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12182-007-0013-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12182-007-0013-x