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Numerical investigations of the cone-shaped vortex finders on the performance of cyclone separators

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Abstract

Performance analysis of 0.29 m diameter cyclone separator was done for cone shaped vortex finders having different in-built tapered angles varying from 0.0°-10.0° in steps of 2.5° at different inlet velocities using Fluent 15.0. Increasing the angle from 0.0° to 10.0° at the lowest inlet velocity decreases the Stokes number (Stk50), which represents the cut-size of a cyclone separator, by 22.1 % at an expense of significant increase in Euler number (Eu), representing the dimensionless pressure drop, by nearly 46.3 %, whereas at the highest inlet velocity of 25 m/s, the Stk50 decreases by 26.1 % and the increase in Eu lowers to 34.3 %. Beyond a critical angle of orientation, 5.0°, a recirculation zone of increasing magnitude develops inside the vortex finder. The axial velocity, tangential velocity, and pressure drop across the cyclone have been validated against published literature; a grid independence test was also done successfully.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT (ISM), Dhanbad, 826004, India

    Vikash Kumar & Kailash Jha

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  1. Vikash Kumar
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  2. Kailash Jha
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Correspondence to Kailash Jha.

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Recommended by Associate Editor Donghyun You

Vikash Kumar is a Research Scholar in Mechanical Engineering at Indian Institute of Technology (ISM) Dhanbad. He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. under the guidance of Dr. Kailash Jha. His research field is computational fluid dynamics, design optimization.

Kailash Jha is an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering of Indian Institute of Technology (ISM), Dhanbad. His research areas are computer aided geometrical modeling, feature recognition, pipe network analysis, and fluid flow.

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Kumar, V., Jha, K. Numerical investigations of the cone-shaped vortex finders on the performance of cyclone separators. J Mech Sci Technol 32, 5293–5303 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-018-1028-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-018-1028-5

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