3.1.2 Particle Flow
Particles entering the separation space are subject to an inwardly directed
drag and an outwardly directed centrifugal force. The ‘separation space’ starts
at the point, where the incoming gas first experiences rotational flow and the particles carried along in this gas flow first experience a centrifugal force
acting radially outwards. This point varies with inlet design and may start,
for example, at the leading edge of an inlet scroll or helix upstream of the
upper ‘barrel’ section of the cyclone proper.
Irrespectively, the centrifugal force is proportional to the particle mass
and, therefore, the cube of the particle diameter: x3. The drag force, which
is due to the flow of gas from the outer to the inner part of the vortex, is
proportional to x, at least when Stokes’ law applies which it often does in
practice. The largest particles are therefore the easiest to separate.
It is not easy to study the particle flow pattern experimentally. In order
to give an impression of the flow of a particle through a cyclone, we can
resort to CFD simulations. Figure 3.1.4 shows a series of particle trajectories.
The particles are injected at different radial positions along the inlet in a
precalculated gas flow field. The swirling motion is not shown.
Although the object is to centrifuge the particles to the wall and capture
them, it is interesting to look at particles so fine that some of them are not collected.
An extremely fine 1.0 µm particle size was used to generate the particle
paths shown in Fig. 3.1.4. Some of the particles can be seen to exit through
the vortex finder, while those injected closer to the wall, reach the wall, where
they are deemed to be captured and are removed from the simulation.