3. Methodology
To assess the significance of the scaling of the cyclone, a
typical cyclone design was selected and CFD simulations
were carried out for six different values of the scaling of the
cyclone. The dimensions of the six cyclones are tabulated in
Table 1. The calculations for each cyclone configuration were
carried out for three different airflow rates—the inlet velocity
values were varied from 10 to 30 m s1
. The density and the
viscosity of air were taken to be 1.2 kg m3 and 1.8105 Pa
s, respectively. The density of the particles was taken to be
1050 kg m3 (typical density for biological particles).
To evaluate the effect of geometric parameters on the
performance of a miniature cyclone, Cyclone 3 from Table 1
was selected as a representative cyclone, and four different
dimensions of the cyclone—conical length, vortex-finder
length, vortex-finder diameter and underflow diameter—
were varied. Again, the CFD calculations were carried out
for three different values of the inlet velocity. All the
calculations in this study were carried out with the assumption
that the cyclones are operated in the straight-through
mode of operation. In other words, the flow was permitted
through the underflow.