(72b) Simulation Study on Gas-Solid Separation Performance of Axial Flow Cyclone

Cyclone separators are widely used in oil processing, natural gas purification, catalyst recovery and other fields. After gas-solid or gas-liquid two-phase fluid passes through the separator, discrete phase (particles or droplets) will be brought to the inner wall of the separator under the action of centrifugal force, and then sedimentation separation will occur. Generally, the pressure drop and efficiency of the cyclone increase or decrease at the same time. Therefore, in order to improve the separation efficiency of the axial flow cyclone under the condition of low pressure drop, a new blade projection parameter was designed in this work as the basic model for experimental verification and simulation analysis. The basic separation performance data of the cyclone at different flow rates were obtained by establishing a gas-solid separation performance evaluation system for the cyclone. The pressure distribution, velocity distribution and wall wear in the cyclone were studied by using computational fluid dynamics simulation method. The results showed that the designed cyclone blade could produce a limited swirl field, and had lower pressure drop and higher separation efficiency (more than 99%) at rated flow rate. Particles with diameter size larger than 5 μm could be completely removed using this cyclone. When the flow rate reached above the rated flow, the internal wear of the cyclone started to appear, and the wear position and wear amount basically did not change with the increase of the flow rate.