Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
methodology
Fuping Qian∗, Mingyao Zhang
Key Laboratory on Clean Coal Power Generation and Combustion Technology of Ministry of Education, Thermo-energy Engineering Research
Institute, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, PR China
Received 7 March 2005; received in revised form 17 July 2005; accepted 17 July 2005 Available online 12 September 2005
Abstract
Numerical simulations of cyclones with various geometries and operating conditions were performed to study the natural vortex
length. The numerical solutions were carried out using commercial CFD code Fluent 6.1. A prediction model of the natural
vortex length was obtained based on response surface methodology by means of the statistical software program (Minitab V14).
The results show that inlet velocity, cyclone length and vortex finder insertion deepness also play an important role in influencing
the natural vortex length other than the factors mentioned in publications. Compared with some experimental conclusions, the
results indicate that present prediction model can estimate the effects of different geometries and operation conditions on the
cyclone’s performance more acutely than other models. © 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Natural vortex length; Cyclone; Response surface methodology; Prediction model
1. Introduction
Natural vortex length is an important parameter of a cyclone. It will influence separation efficiency, the particle
agglomera- tion and surface abrasion. The natural vortex length was used in the separation efficiency formula
presented by Leith and Licht (1972) and Dietz (1981). Presently, some researchers have studied this parameter, and
obtained its empirical formu- las. However, determining the influence of different geome- tries and operation
conditions on the natural vortex length of cyclones by means of experiments will waste time and resources. On the
other hand, with the rapid development of the com- puter and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) techniques, the
use of numerical simulations to predict the performance of the cyclone has received much attention and it is at present
under intensive development (see e.g. Griffiths & Boysan, 1996; Ma, Ingham, & Wen, 2000). An evident advantage
of CFD calculations with respect to experiments is that a large num- ber of flow and geometry variables can be varied
at relative
0098-1354/$ – see front matter © 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.compchemeng.2005.07.011