Numerical analysis of multiphase flow through axial vortex tube cyclone separators

Department of Applied Mechanics, IIT Madras, Chennai, India

Abstract

Axial cyclone separators are used as primary filtration components in many internal combustion engine applications. A numerical study of gas-solid flow through an axial cyclone separator is carried out by Eulerian-Lagrangian CFD approach, which uses discrete phase modelling (DPM) of particles and solution of incompressible turbulent Navier-Stokes equations with RNG k—ɛ closure model. The effective filtration of inlet air from dust particles is an important requirement for prolonged engine life cycle. In axial cyclone separators, a helical swirl generator is used for imparting swirling motion to theparticle laden flow and particles are filtered by centrifugal separation and then scavenged using a vortex tube. In the present work, the modelling done in OpenFOAM successfully captures the features of the swirling flow, along with particle–gas and particle–wall interactions for a varying size distribution at the inlet. Studies were aimed at analysing the effect of particles and its effect on improving the performance of the filter.