High-efficiency industrial cyclone separator: A CFD study

Abstract The flow within an industrial scroll-inlet high-efficiency cyclone separator has been studied using RSM and LES simulations. Of particular interest is the effect of the gas outlet configuration, i.e. outlet scroll and radial bend, on the flow pattern, pressure drop and cyclone efficiency. A surprising phenomenon is that the inner vortex splits into two vortices for the cyclone with a conventional outlet pipe while if the cyclone is equipped with an outlet scroll or radial bend there is no split. The outlet scroll and radial bend increase the pressure losses by 5.1% and 6.4%, respectively. These installations, moreover, significantly destabilize the pressure losses and the amplitude of instantaneous pressure drop oscillations increases from 0.65% to 16.2% and 33.96%, respectively. The investigated outlet scroll and radial bend have practically no effects on the cyclone efficiency since the flow in the main separation zone is not affected by the gas outlet configuration.