Numerical Simulation of an Electro-Cyclone for Classification of Micron-Sized Particles

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran.

Abstract

Cyclones are normally used to separate relatively larger particles from the aerosol. In this article, the feasibility of using a cyclone to classify particles in a specific mass range by applying an electric field between the outer cylinder and the vortex finder is studied. Moreover, the effect of cyclone geometry and electric field intensity on the cyclone efficiency and the classified particle diameter is quantified. The finite element method was used for the simulations of 3D, steady, and two-phase flow. It should be noted that the Reynolds number of inlet flow ranged between 4,000 to10,000. The results reveal that the diameters of the inner and outer cylinders have negligible effects on cyclone efficiency. However, an increase in the length of the cyclone specifically the length of the vortex finder can significantly affect the cyclone performance which can be attributed to the higher particle residence time within the cyclone. For cyclones with twice larger cylinders, the classification efficiency is 6% to17% higher based on the geometric standard deviation of the particle size distribution. It was also shown that different particle masses can be classified by adjusting the flow rate of the inlet aerosol or the magnitude of the electric field applied to the charged particles.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

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Amirkabir Journal of Mechanical Engineering
Volume 54, Issue 9
December 2022
Pages 1971-1988

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