CYCLONE SEPARATOR

Swirling flows are among the most common and most complex in the process industries. Swirling flows appear in spray drying towers, burners, cyclone separators, and a wide variety of other process systems. The example below shows a CFD model of a cyclone separator. Air enters through a tangential inlet generating a swirling flow that forces entrained solids radially outward. The solids drop out through the bottom of the separator while the air exits through the top.

The results of the CFD analysis of the cyclone separator are shown below. Traces are shown for 1, 10, and 100 micron particles. The results show that the 1 micron particles escape with the exhaust air up the vortex finder while the 10 and 100 micron particles fall out and are collected at the solids outlet in the bottom of the cyclone. This is in good agreement with test results which show that over 90% of 10 micron and larger particles are removed while less than 10% of 1 micron and smaller particles are removed.