NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF SWIRLING FLOW IN A CYCLONE CHAMBER

The ability to predict the influence of design parameters on the aerodynamics of cyclone chambers flows is of prime concern in furnace engineering and a number of high temperature processes. The two-dimensional Los Alamos SOLA prediction technique has been extended to include the computation of an axisymmetric swirling flow. The transient Navier-Stokes equations of an incompressible fluid are solved via their associated finite difference equations, directly in terms of the primitive pressure-velocity variables. For this, a short simple computer code has been developed, using a laminar flow simulation with 'free slip' wall boundary conditions. Predictions show that a useful characterization of the flowfield is now available. The simplified code represents a basic tool, to which user-oriented complexities and sophistications can be added later as required