A Mini - Project Report

On

CFD ANALYSIS OF A CYCLONE SEPARATOR

Nirangkush Bharadwaj (1PI13ME094)

Shrikar Bharadwaj. I (1PI13ME161)

Under the Guidance of

DR. K.S. RAVICHANDRAN

August 2015- December 2015

Department of Mechanical Engineering

PES Institute of Technology

(Autonomous institute under VTU, Belgaum)
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We would like to express our gratitude to Dr. K.S. Ravichandran sir for guiding
us throughout the project and helping us whenever we needed any help.

We are also very grateful to Mr. Manu Nayak sir and Mr. Chetan sir of CORI
for helping us learn the softwares and always being there to help us.

We would also like to thank the Mechanical Engineering Department of PES

Institute of Technology for giving us the opportunity to work on this mini
project as a two credit course.
 INTRODUCTION
A cyclone separator is a device used to bring about separation between an in-
flowing gas stream and the solid impurities. By the process of cyclone
separation, the solid particles are separated from the impure air by the means of
the centrifugal action of the spinning gas stream.

The cyclone efficiency is determined by the maximum extent of separation that

can be brought about between the incoming impure air and the solid particulate
matter with minimum pressure drop.

The impure air enters a spiral inside the cyclone, thus exerting a centrifugal
force on the impurities, which causes them to strike the walls of the cyclone,
thus bringing about the required separation.

Fig 1: A cyclone separator showing the fluid flow through it

 METHOD OF APPROACH
PRELIMINARY LITERATURE STUDY:
The first step was to study the physics behind the working of an axial
flow Cyclone Separator and to understand the concepts of separation
efficiency and the methods by which it may be improved. We then
researched about the parameters that can be varied in order to achieve a
better separation efficiency which included the length of the cyclone
body, length of the scavenging pipe, curvature of the dome, size of
particle impurities etc. In this mini project, we have studied the effect of
particular size on separation efficiency in particular and plotted the
corresponding graphs. We have tried to correspond and compare our
results with those obtained previously with regard to this topic. We
researched the mathematics behind the calculation of the separation
efficiency as a function of the size of the particles, no.of particles
injected, no.of particles ejected from the scavenging duct, no.of particles
leaving through the pure air outlet and no.of particles whose tracing and
calculation has been terminated during the Fluent iterations.

STUDY OF HYPERMESH AND ANSYS FLUENT:

HYPERMESH:
Our project required the use of Hypermesh software to discretize the
given geometry into finite elements. As we had no prior knowledge of the
software, we learnt the use of the software simultaneously as we worked
on the given model.

The model was first edited to mask the outer, ineffective surfaces and
to obtain the inner wetted surfaces. These surfaces were then transferred
to a new component from which they could be extracted for meshing.

Each required wetted surface was extracted and meshed with size 2
triangular elements in order to capture the intricate shape of the geometry
better. Each meshed surface was assigned a new component in
Hypermesh. The meshed model was then put together and refined for a
nearly perfect mesh. Following this, we elongated the meshed model in
terms of the length of the inlet, length of the outlet and also the length of
the scavenging pipe.

If d1 = dia of the swirler, d2 = dia of the scavenging pipe,

Elongation at inlet = 6 x d1.
Elongation at exit = 6 x d1 (Length of the exit pipe).
Elongation at scavenging exit = 6 x d2 - (Length of the scavenging pipe).
These elongations were made in order to obtain a fully developed flow.

This was then converted to a volumetric mesh so as to capture the flow

internally during the simulations. It was refined again, defining the
interfaces and boundary conditions and the final mesh was created.

Fig 2: A part of the meshed model in Hypermesh

ANSYS FLUENT:
This mini project also helped us the learn the software of Ansys Fluent
with specific focus on the functions required to carry out analysis on the
Cyclone Separator, relevant to our project. Through this, we could hence
understand the process of setting up the problem conditions and analysing
the flow and its properties through Fluent simulations. The meshed model
was imported to Ansys Fluent for flow simulation and study.
 The parameters of the flow used in fluent was as follows:

Velocity formation: Absolute

Time: Steady flow
The boundary conditions are :
INLET: Mass flow rate = 0.0634 kg/s
Initial gauge pressure = 0
Direction specification method: Normal to boundary
AIR OUTLET: Gauge pressure (Pa) = 0
DUST OUTLET: Gauge pressure (Pa) = 0

Then, the mass flow rate was monitored using three surface monitors : Inlet, Air
outlet and Dust Outlet to see if it obeys the mass balance equation. Then
simulation was done for 500 iterations and graphs were obtained for mass flow
rate at each iteration v/s number of iterations.

After that, the pressure drop was found at the inlet and air outlet and the
velocity contour and pressure contour was observed using CFD post processor
of the .cst file.

The Discrete Phase Model was then turned on and particles of the following
sizes were inserted: 1 micron, 2 micron, 5 micron, 10 micron, 25 micron, 50
micron, 100 micron, 150 micron and 200 micron and the efficiency was found
by using the formula :

Efficiency = ((trapped + incomplete) / tracked)

Where,

Trapped = no.of particles escaping through dust outlet.

Tracked = no.of particles injected initially.

Incomplete = no.of particles whose simulations and calculations have been

terminated during the iterations.

The variation of the separation efficiency w.r.t the size of particles was
observed and the corresponding graph was plotted.
LITERATURE REVIEW:
A cyclone separator imparts centrifugal force to the impure air by the means of
the swirler and the curvature of its internal structure, by means of which the
separation between the air and the inherent impurities is brought about.

A rotational flow is established within the cylindrical container known as the

cyclone. Air enters the cyclone and follows a helical path starting at the top
which is the wide end and ending at the bottom (narrow) end of the cyclone.
The air finally exits through the top of the cyclone after most of the particulate
matter has been separated from it.

The larger particles have too much inertia to follow the curvature of the tight
curve of the air flow and strike the walls of the cyclone, i.e, the centrifugal force
acting on them dominates and separates them from the air flow. They then fall
through the dust particle outlet of the cyclone from where they can be ejected.

We have elongated the model after meshing in directions of inlet, air outlet and
dust outlet. This has been done to obtain a fully-developed flow. Fully
developed flow is that in which the boundary-layer velocity extends all the way
up to centreline velocity. This would mean that the velocity of flow remains
constant along the cross-section of the pipe. Although this is an ideal case, we
can provide these elongations to approximate the flow to fully-developed flow
and assume it in our analysis.
As an objective of our mini project, we have found how the separation
efficiency vs the particle size and compared it with the data previously obtained
from this study, as we found during our literature study. The following table
describes the data previously obtained with regard to this variation.
 RESULTS
1. The use and working of the Hypermesh software were understood
and this provides a stepping stone to go ahead with further research
work, provided the opportunitiy to do so. Through the software, we
meshed the given model and divided into finite elements to carry
out flow simulation analysis via the Ansys Fluent software.
2. The working of Ansys Fluent was understood and used for
different flow simulations, to obtain the properties such as mass
flow rate at inlet and both the outlets, velocity and pressure drop.
3. The results obtained from the flow simulations are described in the
following sections.

MASS FLOW RATE

The mass flow rate was found at the inlet, air outlet and the dust outlet using
500 iterations in Fluent.

INLET: The mass flow rate at the inlet of the cyclone separator was
found to remain constant with a value of 0.0634 kg/s which is according
to the boundary conditions given during the calculation.

Fig 3: Graph of Mass Flow Rate (kg/s) at inlet v/s Iteration in Fluent
 AIR OUTLET: The mass flow rate at the air outlet was found to follow
an exponential decrease from a value of around 0.0380 kg/s which
becomes constant after ~325 iterations, due to convergence.

Fig 4: Graph of Mass Flow Rate (kg/s) at Air Outlet v/s Iteration in Fluent

DUST OUTLET: The mass flow rate at the dust outlet follows an
exponential increase from a value of around 0.0260 kg/s and it becomes
constant at higher iteration values of above 150.
Fig 5: Graph of Mass Flow Rate (kg/s) at Dust Outlet v/s Iteration in Fluent

VELOCITY CONTOURS:
The air is found to enter the inlet of the cyclone with a steady velocity of 22.35
m/s. At the swirler, certain sections of the flow(at the centre) were found to
have minimal values between 0 to 5.587 m/s. These were found to be the
sections of the flow directly striking the outer dome of the swirler. The sections
of flow away from the dome of the swirler continued to travel with a constant
inlet velocity into the cyclone separator.

On encountering the curvatures within the cyclone separator, the particle

separation occurs and the pure air tends to enter the exit duct or pure air outlet
with a maximum velocity of 44.70 m/s to 55.87 m/s.

The impurities exited through the scavenging duct with a velocity of 27.93 m/s
to 44.70 m/s.
The velocity contour is illustrated below

Fig 6: Velocity Streamline of fluid flow through model in CFD post processor

Fig 7: Velocity contour of fluid flow through the model in CFD post processor
PRESSURE DROP:
We observed the pressure of the flow at the inlet of the Cyclone Separator and
at the outlet.

SECTION PRESSURE (Pa)

Inlet 1248.78
Air Outlet 19.89
Pressure drop = 1248.78 19.89 = 1228.89 Pa.

Fig 8: CFD post processing to find the pressure drop

The pressure contour as observed at different sections of the cyclone is as

illustrated below.

Fig 9: Pressure contours at different sections of the model

SEPARATION EFFICIENCY:
Particles of different sizes were inserted into the flow through the Cyclone
Separator and the efficiency of the device was analysed as a function of the
no.of particles injected, number of particles ejected through scavenging duct
and no.of particles whose calculations have been terminated.

PARTICLE NO.OF NO.OF NO.OF NO.OF

SIZE (m) PARTICLES PARTICLES PARTICLES PARTICLES
TRACKED ESCAPED TRAPPED INCOMPLETE
1 2785 1917 401 467
2 2785 1550 543 692
5 2785 254 643 1888
10 2785 32 966 1787
25 2785 0 2785 0
50 2785 0 2785 0
100 2785 22 2763 0
150 2785 305 2480 0
200 2785 381 2404 0

If

Tracked = no.of particles initially injected into the Cyclone Separator

Trapped = no.of particles ejected through scavenging duct

Incomplete = no.of particles whose simulation and calculations have been

aborted during the iterations.

Separation efficiency = (trapped + incomplete) / (tracked)

PARTICLE SIZE (m) SEPARATION EFFICIENCY (%)

1 31.167
2 44.3447
5 90.8797
10 98.851
25 100
50 100
100 99.2101
150 89.0485
200 86.3196
 Efficiency v/s Particle Size
100

90

80

70

60

50
Efficiency
40

30

20

10

0
1 micron 2 micron 5 micron 10 25 50 100 150 200
micron micron micron micron micron micron
 CONCLUSION
Cyclone separator uses centrifugal action to separate the dust particles from the
incoming air particles. The main objective of the project was to understand the
Physics behind the flow of fluid inside the cyclone, understand the factors
effecting the separation efficiency and find the efficiency of the given model of
cyclone separator.

First the model was meshed in Hypermesh and then simulations run on Ansys
fluent to find the mass flow rate at the inlet, air outlet and dust outlet, the
pressure drop, pressure and velocity contours and then the efficiency for
different particle size was found.

It was found that for a constant mass flow rate at the inlet, the mass flow rate at
the dust outlet increases and the mass flow rate at the air outlet decreases with
the number of iterations.

Pressure drop at the inlet and the outlet was found to be 1228.89 Pa.

We observed that the separation efficiency increases with the particle size and
then decreases after some values. This decrease was because the factor of
reflection coefficient was not considered during the simulation, which can be
done as future work.

The values of separation efficiency against the size of the injected particles were
found to closely correlate with those obtained in previous work in this topic.
 FUTURE WORK
As mentioned earlier, the separation efficiency as a function of particle size first
increases steeply, remains constant at 100% for particles of size ~ 25 100 m
and then falls slightly beyond this particle size. This is due to the fact that
reflection coefficient has not been considered while performing our calculations
and simulations. We wish to include these in our calculations to obtain more
accurate results.

The calculations performed in this project only analyse the separation efficiency
as a function of injected particle size. As learnt from our preliminary literature
study, it may also vary as a function of various design parameters such as
diameter of swirler, distance of scavenging duct from the inlet and curvature of
the swirler blades as well as of the junction between the intermediate duct,
scavenging duct and air outlet. We speculate that the increased curvature may
lead to greater centrifugal force acting on the impure particles, and hence induce
greater particle separation.

We wish to take this up as future work in this field.