Iranian Journal of Chemical Engineering (IJChE)

Abstract A new approach is proposed to evaluate various designs for gas-solid cyclone separators. This approach uses single-phase flow simulation results to find a quantitative measure of flow symmetry in a given cyclone. Flow symmetry is computed by averaging imbalances of   non-axial velocities throughout the cyclone. Using this approach, two standard design methods are evaluated and the cyclone with a more symmetric flow pattern is chosen as a starting point for further design improvements by reducing the diameter of its vortex finder. Two-phase computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations compute 90.2 % collection efficiency for the improved design. CFD simulations reveal using a cascade of four cyclones results in an overall 99.98 % collection efficiency. Once installed in the actual industrial setting, the cyclone cascade achieves a 98.56 % collection efficiency and a particle size distribution which is in good agreement with CFD computed results.