CFD simulations of cyclone separators with different diameters: Analysis of gas cyclones with different cylinder diameters

The present work is based on studying the effect of varying cyclone main body diameter on its performance. For this purpose Stairmand high efficiency cyclone with main body diameter of 0.29m has been considered. Three different diameters are considered, viz. 0.9D, 1.0D and 1.1D; with D as the diameter of standard cyclone model and the constants being the scaling factor. Pressure drops and collection efficiencies of all the cyclone models have been predicted using commercially available CFD code FLUENT 6.3.26. High quality block structured hexahedral mesh has been created using industry standard software ICEM CFD, upon which the Navier-Stokes equations are solved iteratively using finite volume methods. Reynolds stress model is used as a closure model to solve Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations that solves for stress tensors together with the equation for the dissipation rates. The present study shows remarkable effect of the cyclone diameter on its performance which are discussed in details.