The effect of particle humidity on separation efficiency for an axial cyclone separator

The objective of this study is to investigate the effects of particle humidity on the inlet particle size distribution, overall efficiency, grade efficiency and cut size diameter for an axial cyclone separator with inner diameter of 150?mm. The collection and grade efficiencies of the cyclone separator were measured by on-line method for inlet velocities, particle concentration and particle humidity in the ranges of 12–18?m/s, 30–500?mg/m³ and 8–30‰, respectively. By employing a set of fixed parameters for inlet velocity and particle concentration, the effect of particle humidity on separation efficiency was investigated. The experimental results show that the volume ratio of larger particle increases with the increasing of particle humidity due to particle agglomeration. When the inlet velocity and particle humidity remain constant, the collection and grade efficiencies improve greatly as the increasing of the particle concentration because of the particle aggregation. However, it was noticed that the grade efficiencies did not always increased with the increasing of particle humidity under the same conditions of inlet velocity and particle concentration. The trends of grade efficiency curves for different particle humidity change at the particle diameter of approximately 10?μm. The grade efficiency improves with the increasing of particle humidity when the particle diameter is larger than 10?μm, while a contrary tendency is observed when the particle diameter is smaller than 10?μm.     

Performance evaluation of industrial large-scale cyclone separator with novel vortex finder

This paper presents an experimental and numerical study on an industrial large-scale tangential-inlet cyclone separator with a novel and easy-to-implement vortex finder. The vortex finder was designed with slots on the side wall to improve cyclone performance. The collection efficiency, pressure drop, and interior flow field were analyzed. The proposed device provides an effective gas flow pathway and a coupled swirl-inertia separation mechanism, which eliminates short circuit flows under the bottom inlet of the slotted vortex finder to reduce the swirling intensity and minimize the flow instability in the separator. The pressure drop was reduced up to 27.9% compared to the conventional separator and the maximal increase in collection efficiency was 5.45%. The results presented here may provide a workable reference regarding the effects of vortex finders on improving flow fields and corresponding performance in industrial large-scale cyclone separators.     

Experimental and CFD study on effects of spiral guide vanes on cyclone performance

This paper presents an experimental and numerical study on a tangential inlet cyclone separator with a spiral guide vane which is not often researched. Numerical pressure drop results were in close agreement with the experimental data. The spiral guide vane was also found to considerably influence the velocity distribution, turbulence intensity, pressure drop and collection efficiency in the cyclone. A critical value of spiral guide vane turns appeared below or above which there was a marked increase in collection efficiency, pressure drop, and tangential velocity. Compared to a cyclone with zero spiral guide vane turn, the maximal decrease in collection efficiency in the cyclone with the critical spiral guide vane turns (one turn) was 2% approximately. The maximum-efficiency inlet velocity appeared to exist independent of spiral guide vane turns, as inlet velocity affected the radial distance traveled by the rebounded particles from the inner wall. The analysis of flow field in cyclones indicated that the flow field was improved with the spiral guide vanes employed to some extent. The results presented here may provide a workable reference for the effects of spiral guide vanes on the flow field and corresponding performance in cyclone separators.     

Development and application of a novel swirl cyclone scrubber (2) Theoretical

The swirl cyclone scrubber analyzed in this paper is a novel aerosol filtering device in which a uniflow cyclone and a scrubber are combined. Systematic experiments showed that the swirl scrubber is a promising device that has minimal installation, operational, and maintenance costs. In this article, theoretical analyses are developed for the swirl cyclone scrubber. The dependency of particle collection efficiency on the design and operating parameters observed by experiments is explained using a theoretical parameterization to provide guidelines for optimal design and operation of the device. Discussion on possible variations of the swirl cyclone scrubber is also presented based on the theoretical parameterization developed.     

Parametric analysis and optimization of gas-particle flow through axial cyclone separator: A numerical study

The separation of particles through an axial swirl tube cyclone separator is numerically investigated using Eulerian-Lagrangian approach by solving Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes equations with RNG K-epsilon model as turbulence closure and Discrete phase modeling (DPM) of particles. The four significant geometric parameters in an axial swirl tube cyclone separator for improving the performance are identified to be blade angle, blade length, blade-tube distance and number of blades. The impact of these parameters on the output parameters of a cyclone separator, is studied through numerical analysis with the open source CFD solver OpenFOAM. A one factor analysis is performed to understand the individual contributions of the parameters and a multiobjective optimisation is done using the Design of Experiments (DoE) approach. The blade length was found to be the most sensitive parameter whereas the blade tube distance had the least effect. Using statistical methods such as Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Multi Objective Genetic algorithm (MOGA), a set of Pareto optimum solutions are generated, with an effective trade off between the pressure drop and filtration efficiency. The configurations obtained after optimisation are validated with CFD simulations and found to be having a better overall performance as compared to the conventional configuration.     

顶灰环对旋风分离器分离特性的影响

针对旋风分离器顶部灰环逃逸现象,采取在升气管根部开孔直接导出顶灰环中颗粒的方法,以探究顸部灰环在环形空间的分布形态及粒径分布特性。实验在升气管圆周的8个位置分别开孔并试验,通过粗粉收率的变化判断顶灰环中颗粒的逃逸量,并分析了细粉中的粒径分布。发现顶灰环中颗粒逃逸的量是由于顶灰环在空间分布不均造成的,而且在空间的粒径含量和分布是一个动态平衡过程。实验数据袁明相对于升气管开孔前的收率下降了0．37％-5．5％,压降下降了20．1％-40％。最大效率可达97．47％,最低压降可达176．4Pa。     

Engineering Tools for Understanding the Hydrodynamics of Dissolution Tests

Abstract

In this article, three well-established engineering tools are used to examine hydrodynamics in dissolution testing apparatuses. The application of these tools would provide detailed information about the flow, shear, and homogeneity in dissolution tests. Particle image velocimetry successfully measures two-dimensional cross-sections of the velocity field in an experimental device under both laminar and turbulent conditions. The velocity field is also calculated with computational fluid dynamics (CFD), which can rapidly provide data that is difficult or impossible to obtain experimentally. The occurrence of segregated regions within a USP Apparatus II under mild agitation conditions is revealed by CFD simulations and confirmed by laser-induced fluorescence experiments. The results clearly demonstrate that under current operation settings, the USP Apparatus II operates in a regime where the flow is in incipient turbulence, which is a highly time-dependent condition that might explain possible inconsistencies in dissolution results. It is further demonstrated that proposed changes advocating lower speeds or smaller vessels displace the system toward laminar flow conditions characterized by segregation, compromising the robustness of the test and making it vulnerable to variability with respect to sample location.     

Engineering tools for understanding the hydrodynamics of dissolution tests

In this article, three well-established engineering tools are used to examine hydrodynamics in dissolution testing apparatuses. The application of these tools would provide detailed information about the flow, shear, and homogeneity in dissolution tests. Particle image velocimetry successfully measures two-dimensional cross-sections of the velocity field in an experimental device under both laminar and turbulent conditions. The velocity field is also calculated with computational fluid dynamics (CFD), which can rapidly provide data that is difficult or impossible to obtain experimentally. The occurrence of segregated regions within a USP Apparatus II under mild agitation conditions is revealed by CFD simulations and confirmed by laser-induced fluorescence experiments. The results clearly demonstrate that under current operation settings, the USP Apparatus II operates in a regime where the flow is in incipient turbulence, which is a highly time-dependent condition that might explain possible inconsistencies in dissolution results. It is further demonstrated that proposed changes advocating lower speeds or smaller vessels displace the system toward laminar flow conditions characterized by segregation, compromising the robustness of the test and making it vulnerable to variability with respect to sample location.     

Experimental and numerical analysis of a variable area ratio steam ejector

In the present paper, experimental and CFD results for a 5 kW capacity steam ejector with variable primary nozzle geometry are presented and compared. The variable geometry was achieved by applying a movable spindle at the primary nozzle inlet. Operating conditions were considered in a range that would be suitable for an air-conditioning application, with thermal energy supplied by vacuum tube solar collectors. The CFD model was based on the axi-symmetric representation of the experimental ejector, using water as working fluid. The experimental entrainment ratio varied in the range of 0.1–0.5 depending on operating conditions and spindle tip position. It was found that the primary flow rate can be successfully adjusted by the spindle. CFD and experimental primary flow rates agreed well, with an average relative error of 7.7%. CFD predicted the secondary flow rate and entrainment ratio with good accuracy only in 70% of the cases.     

Numerical modeling of the effects of oil on annular laminar film condensation in minichannels

This paper presents a numerical model to predict laminar film condensation heat transfer in small channels of different internal geometries for miscible refrigerant-oil mixtures. The model includes the contributions of surface tension, axial shear stresses induced by the vapor to film interface, gravitational forces, wall conduction and the oil concentration dependency on the liquid's dynamic viscosity. For the same operative conditions and fluid, the presence of the oil has a significant negative impact on the thermal performance at high vapor qualities, with the degradation depending on the channel's shape. Presently, the performance of different channel shapes (circular and flattened shapes) are simulated and compared. It is concluded that the presence of oil has slightly less effect on capillary-dominated regimes (i.e. when the surface tension has a strong effect on the film dynamics) than on gravity-dominated regimes (i.e. annular stratified regime).