Solids concentration simulation of different size particles

in a cyclone separator
Gujun Wan, Guogang Sun

, Xiaohu Xue, Mingxian Shi

Faculty of Chemical Science and Engineering, China University of Petroleum, Beijing, 102249, China
Available online 23 November 2007
Abstract
To deepen our knowledge of the flow in cyclones, the solids concentrations of different size particles in a scroll cyclone separator were
numerically simulated by using the Lagrange approach on the platform of commercial CFD software package, FLUENT 6.1. The numerical
calculations visualize that there exists a spiral dust strand near the cyclone wall and a dust ring beneath the cyclone top plate. There are two regions in
the radial solids concentration distribution, with which the solids concentration is low in the inner region (r/R(dimensionless radial position) 0.75)
and increases greatly in the outer region (r/RN0.75). Large particles generally have higher concentration in the wall region and small particles have
higher concentration in inner vortex region. The axial distribution of the solids concentration in the inner vortex region (r/R0.3) shows that serious
fine particle re-entrainment exists within the height of 0.5 D(cyclone diameter) above the dust discharge port. We study the effect of solids particle on
the gas flow field by two-way couple. The concepts of back-mixing rate, first escaping rate and second escaping rate are proposed for quantifying the
local flow phenomena.
2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Cyclone separator; Solids concentration; Simulation
1. Introduction
Cyclones are widely used in the petrochemical and process
industries for the removal of particles from their carrying fluids
because of their simplicity, easiness and low costs in construction,
operation, maintenance and energy consumption. By using
suitable materials and methods of construction, cyclones can be
operated at high temperature and/or pressure circumstances, where
the development of high efficient devices could have a significant
impact in the energy and processing industries, such as pressurized
fluidized bed combustion (PFBC), integrated gasification and
combined cycle (IGCC) and fluidized catalytic cracking (FCC)
processes. In these harsh environments, cyclones are nowadays
almost the sole, fully commercial solution to the removal of
particles from elevated-temperature gases. However, due to the
extremely complicated three dimensional swirlingflows within the
cyclone, the fundamental understanding of the separation process
occurring in the cyclone is still not adequate. In fact, the gassolid
suspension flowbehaviors in cyclones have long been a subject of
many experimental, theoretical and numerical researches [13]. A
number of measurement methods are frequently employed to
study the flow structure in experimental cyclones, but, the
drawbacks of the measurement methods would limit our under-
standing about the flow complexity to some extent [4].
With the rapid development of computer and computational
fluid dynamics (CFD) techniques, the use of numerical simu-
lations to predict the performance of the cyclone has received
much attention. For the turbulent flow in cyclones, the key to
the success of CFD lies with the accurate description of the
turbulent behavior of the flow [5]. The standard k, RNG k
and Realizable k models were not optimized for strongly
swirling flows found in cyclones [6,7]. The potential of LES for
single-phase cyclonic flow has already been demonstrated by
Slack et al. [8] and Derksen [9]. The Reynolds Stress turbulence
model yield an accurate prediction on swirl flow pattern, axial
velocity, tangential velocity and pressure drop on cyclone
simulation [10].
In Derksen paper [11], an EulerianLagrangian description
of the two-phase (gassolid) flow was presented. The Eulerian
Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
Powder Technology 183 (2008) 94104
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Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 1089734820.

E-mail address: ggsun@163bj.com (G. Sun).
0032-5910/$ - see front matter 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.powtec.2007.11.019
description of the gas flow is based on the LES. The motion of
solid particles on their way through the simulated gas flow field
was modeled based on a one-way coupling assumptionthe
particles feel the gas flow, but the gas flow is not affected by the
presence of the particles.
Derksen, et al. [12] further performed 3-D, time-dependent
EulerianLagrangian simulations of the turbulent gas fluid flow
in a cyclone separator including two-way coupling effects. The
effect of the particles on the gas is modeled by the particle-
source-in cell (PSIC) method.
Wang et al. [13] obtained the gas flowin a Lapple cyclone by the
use of the Reynolds stress model. The particle flowis simulated by
the use of Stochastic Lagrangian model. The separation efficiency
and trajectories of particles from the simulation are shown to be
comparable to those observed experimentally. The effects of par-
ticle size and gas velocity on the separation efficiency are quanti-
fied and the results are shown to agree well with experiments.
Zhao et al. [14] used the Reynolds stress turbulence model to
simulate the gas flow of two types of cyclones with the con-
ventional single inlet and spiral double inlets, respectively. A
Lagrangian method is employed to track the particle motion and
calculate the gas particle separation efficiency in the cyclones. The
results indicate that the CFD method can effectively reveal the
mechanism of gas particle flow and separation in cyclone with
different inlet configuration.
Gas particle flow in three cyclones was numerically modeled
using the EulerianLagrangian approach by Shi et al. [15]. The
Reynolds stress model is used to represent the anisotropic turbu-
lence in the gas phase. Comparison with experimental data in
literature indicates that the tangential lift-off boundary condition
yields more accurate predictions than other boundary conditions.
In this study, the solids concentration distribution of different
size particles in a cyclone separator was simulated based on the
commercial software Fluent 6.1. The calculations could improve
our knowledge about the gassolid flowin cyclones and provide
some fundamentals for further research of cyclone separation
model.
2. Numerical simulation methods
2.1. Turbulence model
The flow field in gas cyclones is a strong turbulent swirling
flow. Currently, RSM can reasonably predict the swirling flows.
When using the Reynolds stress turbulence model, beside the
momentum and continuity equations, the transport equations of
Reynolds stresses can be written as

t
q
P
u
i
u
j

x
k
qU
k
P
u
i
u
j

D
ij
P
ij
P
ij
e
ij
1
Where the four terms on the right hand side stand for stress dif-
fusion, stress production, pressure strain, and dissipation terms,
respectively. The closure model of the pressure-strain term
ij
is
most important in predicting Reynolds stresses. Hu et al. [3]
improved the Reynolds stress equation model by modifying
empirical constants in the pressure-strain term within CFD code
Fluent. Predicted Reynolds stress model velocities are more
reasonable than those obtained previously. This study used Hu et
al.'s improved RSM on the platformof Fluent 6.1. The pressure
velocity coupling algorithmSIMPLEC(SIMPLE Consistent) and
the QUICK higher order upwind interpolation scheme were used
in all numerical experiments.
2.2. Gassolid two-phase flow model
In this study, the inlet solids concentration C
i
is 0.03 kg/m
3
,
corresponding particle phase volume fraction is far smaller
than 1%. Except near wall region, the solids concentration
distribution in most of volume cyclone can be calculated using
the Lagrangian approach without considering the particles in-
teraction, which is called the Discrete Phase Model (DPM) in
Fluent [16]. The momentum equation of a particle in the two-
phase flow can be expressed as
du
p
dt

1
s
u
g
u
g
V u
p

g 2
dv
p
dt

1
s
v
g
v
g
V v
p

w
2
p
r
0
3
dw
p
dt

1
s
w
g
w
g
V w
p

u
p
w
p
r
0
4
where p, g stands for the particles and gas phase, respectively. u
g
,
v
g
, w
g
are the fluctuation velocity components. stands for the
relaxation time of particles.
s
q
p
d
2
p
18A

24
C
D
Re
p
: 5
Here, Re
p
is the particle Reynolds number, which is defined
as
Re
p

qd
p
ju
p
uj
A
6
u is the fluid phase velocity, u
p
is the particle velocity, is the
molecular viscosity of the fluid, is the fluid density,
g
is the
density of the particle, and d
p
is the particle diameter. The drag
coefficient, C
D
, can be obtained from
C
D
a
1

a
2
Re
p

a
3
Re
p
7
Where a
1
, a
2
and a
3
are constants for smooth spherical particles
over several ranges of Re
p
given by Morsi and Alexander [17].
In FLUENT, the Discrete RandomWalk (DRW) model is used
to model the turbulent dispersion of particles. In this model, the
fluctuating velocity components are discrete piecewise constant
functions of time. Their random value is kept constant over an
interval of time given by the characteristic lifetime of the eddies.
The two-way transfer of momentumbetween gas and particle is
modeled by PSIC methods [18]. The momentum transfer from the
continuous phase to the discrete phase is computed in FLUENT by
examining the change in momentum of a particle as it passes
95 G. Wan et al. / Powder Technology 183 (2008) 94104
through each control volume in the FLUENT model. This
momentum change is computed as
F
X
18A
q
p
d
2
p

C
D
Re
p
24
u
p
u

F
other
!
:
m
p
Dt 8
Where, m
p
is the flowrate of the particles. F
other
is other interaction
forces. t is time step. This momentum exchange appears as a
momentumsink in the continuous phase momentumbalance in any
subsequent calculations of the continuous phase flow field.
The interphase exchange of momentumis under-relaxed during
the calculation, so that
F
new
F
old
a F
calculated
F
old
9
Where is the under-relaxation factor for particles. It was set to 0.5.
In this study, a transient run was performed for gassolid
flow, using the steady-state gas flow field results for initial
conditions. Time step of t =0.0001 s was used.
2.3. Grid division
The geometrical dimensions of the cyclone separator used for
simulation are depicted in Fig. 1(a). The diameter of the cyclone is
300 mm, and the inlet size is 176 mm84 mm. The origin of the
coordinates is set at the bottom end of the vortex finder, and the
positive direction is upward. Cyclone separator can be divided into
three parts in its height: annular space, separation space and dust
hopper space. Structured mesh is used, as shown in Fig. 1(b). The
effect of grid refinement had previously been evaluated in the
simulation process. Fig. 2 presents the comparisons between the
experimental and calculated collection efficiencies under the three
different numbers of grids nodes. The final grids had around
123,452 nodes.
2.4. Boundary conditions
2.4.1. Inlet boundary conditions
The gas inlet velocity is set as V
i
=20 m/s. The initial
positions of the particles are the location of the data points on the
inlet surface. The particles velocity is equal to the gas inlet
velocity. Fromt =0 on, the particles are continuously fed into the
cyclone at a rate of 450 particle parcels per time step. The
particles used are 325 mesh talcum powder, whose density is
2700 kg/m
3
.
The diameters of the particles computed are 1.5 m,
4 m, 8 m, 18 m and particle group. The dust loading C
i
is
0.03 kg/m
3
. The size distribution of the particle group is shown
in Table 1.
2.4.2. Outlet boundary conditions
The boundary conditions at the outlet of the cyclone are
prescribed as a fully-developed pipe flow. At the top end of the
gas outlet, the gradients of all variables in the axial direction are
assumed to be zero. During calculation, the vortex finder is
extended to meet the requirements of a fully-developed flow.
Particles are assumed trapped by the bottom of the cyclone and
escape at cyclone outlet.
2.4.3. Wall boundary conditions
No-slip conditions are assumed at the wall. For the grid nodes
near the wall, they are approximated and treated using the wall
function. Particles are assumed elastically reflected by walls.
Fig. 2. Collection efficiency predicted at the different numbers of grids
conditions.
Table 1
Diameter distribution of particle group
d
p
(m) 24 19 15 12 7 4 1
M
D
(%) 10 25 31 39 58 74 93
Fig. 1. Dimensions of the cyclone and the sketch of computation grids.
96 G. Wan et al. / Powder Technology 183 (2008) 94104
The coefficient of restitution is defined using a trial method and
error procedure. Different coefficients of restitution are adopted
at different wall position. If the calculated separation efficiency
of cyclone shows well agreement with experiment using a
certain coefficient of restitution, it is adopted. At annular space,
the particle coefficient of restitution is set as 1.00.90; From
upper to lower of separation space, the particle coefficient of
restitution is set as 0.900.60; At dust hopper, the particle
coefficient of restitution is set as 0.500.05.
2.5. Validation
It takes quite some time before a steady state is reached. Fig. 3
shows a part of the time-evolution of the fate of the particles
(exhausted, collected, still inside the cyclone). At t 30000t
we reach steady conditions: The number of particles inside the
cyclone stabilizes.
To attain the confidence about the simulation, it is necessary to
compare the simulation result with the available measurement
data. Fig. 4 shows the solids concentration distribution compar-
ison between simulation result and experiments data of Wu et al.
[19] along radial and axial directions. The simulation gives good
predictions, demonstrates the improved RSM and Discrete Phase
Model can predict the solid concentration distribution in the
cyclone separator well.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Solids concentration distributions of different diameter
particles
The simulated solids concentration cloud pictures of different
particle diameters on the wall and at the 0180 cross section of
the cyclone are illustrated in Figs. 5 and 6. Fromthese figures, it is
seen that particles generally move outward and downward. The
smaller particles (such as, d
p
=4 m) are generally apt to disperse
throughout the cyclone. In the upper part of the cyclone, annular
space and cylinder section, the small particles, on the one hand,
are likely to be dragged by gas flow and escaped from the vortex
finder in the top, on the other hand, moved outward and down-
wards by the centrifugal force and gravity, and consequently
result a relative rarefied solids concentration section. And in the
lower part of the cyclone, the cone section and dust hopper, the
separation process is dominant. Particles are apt to be separated
and accumulated in the wall region and gradually move down to
the hopper. For the 4 m particle simulated, the wall particle
accumulation is seen almost in the whole cone section and the
hopper. The bigger the particles, the more the wall particle
accumulation and the lower the accumulation height have been
seen in the cyclone. For bigger particles, like 18 m particle
simulated, the high solids concentration accumulation fell to the
lower section of the hopper. To the particles larger than a certain
size, such as, the simulated 8 m and 18 m particles, a high
solids concentration accumulation zone is observed underneath
the cover plate of the cyclone, which is called top dust ring. This is
considered due to the effect of a secondary longitudinal vortex
near the top of the annular space [3]. Derksen [11] also observed
most of the particles that are still inside the cyclone are captured in
the recirculation region in the annulus in between the exit pipe and
the cyclone wall, near the top the cyclone body. An un-uniform
distribution of the solids concentration accumulation on the
Fig. 3. Time-evolution of the number of particles injected, exhausted at the top,
collected at the bottom, and in the cyclone.
Fig. 4. Comparison of simulated results with measured data along radial and
axial directions.
97 G. Wan et al. / Powder Technology 183 (2008) 94104
cyclone wall, which appears spiral dust strand, is observed with
the increasing of the particle diameters. This feature strongly
resembles observations in our transparent experimental facility, as
shown in Fig. 5(d). Derksen [11] and Wang et al. [13] observed
spiral-shape structures at the outer wall of the cyclone body too.
As shown in Fig. 6, the inner swirl entrainment of the smaller
particles is more obvious than the bigger particles and its
entrainment height can reach the half height of the cone section
or more. For the bigger particles and particle group, except in
the dust hopper and near the region of the cyclone wall, a lower
Fig. 5. Different diameters particle concentration distribution on walls.
98 G. Wan et al. / Powder Technology 183 (2008) 94104
solids concentration zone is seen in the most of cyclone annular
and separated space.
Derksen [11] found the smaller particles get dispersed in the
cyclone. In the inlet area, the bigger particles are homogeneously
dispersed. They do not attach immediately to the wall once they
enter the body of the cyclone, as the still bigger particles do, but
have some chance to enter the weak short-cut flow that directly
guides gas from the annulus in between the vortex finder and the
cyclone wall into the exit pipe and get exhausted. The simulated
results, as Fig. 6(a) shows, are in accordance with Derksen
findings.
The separation process is also visualized for the two-way
coupled simulation by Derksen [12] in 2006. He found that
turbulence plays a crucial role in the separation process. The
small particles are dispersed by turbulence throughout the
cyclone, and are likely to get caught in the flow through the exit
pipe at the top. The bigger the particles, the more they
accumulate in the wall region and gradually move (due to the
combined action of gas flow and gravity) to the dustbin. His
simulated results coincide with what is shown in Figs. 5 and 6.
In Fig. 7, the radial solids concentration distribution under the
top plate of the annular space Z=166 mm and in the annular
space middle part Z=76 mm are presented. The cyclone annular
space can be divided into the low solids concentration region
near the vortex finder and the solids concentration sharply
increase region near the wall along the radial direction for the
different diameters particle. With the increase of the particle
diameters, the range of solids concentration sharply increase
region near the wall not only becomes narrower, but the solids
concentration increases in it. This demonstrates the annular
Fig. 6. Different diameters particle concentration distribution at the 0180section of cyclone.
Fig. 7. Different diameter particles radial concentration distribution at annular space.
99 G. Wan et al. / Powder Technology 183 (2008) 94104
space separation ability strengthens with the increase of the
particles diameter.
There is no great difference on the 1.5 m and 4 m solids
concentration near the top plate and in the middle part of
cyclone annular space. While with the increase of the particle
diameters, the solids concentration increases sharply near the
top plate. It demonstrates the secondary gas flow vortex near the
top plate affects the bigger particles more than the smaller
particles.
The radial solids concentration distribution at different axial
position in the separated space of cyclone is shown in Fig. 8.
The 1.5 m particle concentration distribution changes little
along the radial direction. With the particle diameters increase,
the change becomes larger. According to the difference of
particle concentration, for the bigger particles (d
p
8 m), the
separation space can be divided into three parts from inner to
outer along the radial direction: the inner low concentration
region, the annular concentration slowly increasing region and
the wall concentration steep increasing region. While for the
smaller particles (d
p
b8 m), the inner entrainment region is
added and can be divided into four parts. The range of the low
concentration region extents and particle concentration in-
creases in the high concentration region near the wall with the
particle diameters increase. An obvious particles entrainment
from dust hopper and the cone wall is observed above the dust
discharge (Z=850 mm). It is interesting to note the 4 m
particle concentration is larger than the 1.5 m near the upper
region of the dust discharge. This can be explained by 1.5 m
particles get dispersed in the cyclone and they are likely caught
Fig. 8. Different diameter s particle radial concentration distribution at separated
space.
Fig. 9. Different diameter particles axial concentration distribution at separate
space.
100 G. Wan et al. / Powder Technology 183 (2008) 94104
by the inner swirl, and escaped through the vortex finder before
they enter into the dust hopper. The particles entrainment from
the dust hopper and the cone wall decreases with the particle
diameter increase when the particle diameter is bigger than
4 m.
Fig. 9 shows the axial solids concentration distribution at
three typical radial positions in the cyclone separation space.
The solids concentration is highest near the cone dust discharge,
at inner quasi-forced vortex region (r/R=0.1). From the dust
discharge to the separation space top, the particle concentration
decreases gradually due to the secondary separation effect of the
inner swirl flow. When reaching certain height, the particle
concentration stops changing. Based on this result, it is clear
that certain separation space height is necessary to separate
inner swirl entrainment particles. Near the inlet of vortex finder
(|Z| =0.25D), the solids concentration increases obviously for
the smaller particles (d
p
4 m). As expected, the smaller
particles (d
p
4 m) do not attach immediately to the wall once
they enter into the body of the cyclone, as the bigger particles
(d
p
8 m) do, but have a chance to enter the short-cut flow and
escape. In the region near the cone dust discharge (|Z|=2.5 D),
solids concentration increases sharply and forms a high con-
centration region in the centre of the cyclone. This is attributed
to the particle re-entrainment from the dust hopper and the cone
wall. The bigger the particles diameter is, the smaller the
particle concentration near the dust discharge is. As shown in
Fig. 9(b), the particle concentration increase in the ascending
flow region of quasi-free vortex (r/R=0.35) show smaller than
in the quasi-forced vortex. As expected, this is caused by the
higher gas tangential velocity in upward flow region of quasi-
free vortex, which results in the higher centrifugal force exerts
on the particle leading to more difficult for particles to stay here.
The descending flow region of quasi-free vortex (r/R=0.60)
is the downward flow region of particles. As illustrated in
Fig. 9(c), in descending flow region, the range of high
concentration region near the wall extents with the particle
diameter increase, demonstrates a lot of particles don't reach
the wall and might escape.
3.2. The effect of solids particle on the gas flow field
In the separation section of the cyclone the gas flow field has
significantly changed as a result of the presence of the solid
particles, see Fig. 10. For the small particles, the tangential
Fig. 10. Radial profiles of the tangential gas velocity (left), axial velocity (right) at axial location Z=224 mm (top) and Z=424 mm (bottom).
101 G. Wan et al. / Powder Technology 183 (2008) 94104
velocity increases as the inflow of angular momentum increases
with switching on two-way coupling: once solids and gas are
fully coupled the particles contribute to the momentum of the
gas stream and vice versa. The increase of swirl is mostly felt in
the free-vortex part of the swirl profile, since here the particle
concentrations are much higher than in the core. The particles
carry tangential momentum with them when moving towards
the wall and then partly transfer it to the gas.
Only the bigger particles (d
p
24 m) affect the axial velocity
obviously. At the region of r/RN0.75, the axial velocity reduces,
but at the region of r/Rb0.75, the axial velocity increases.
Fig. 11 shows the effect of mass loading on the gas flow. When
the inlet solids concentration is lower (C
i
=30 g/m
3
), the tan-
gential and axial velocity changes little. With inlet solids concen-
tration increasing, not only the tangential velocity reduces, but its
distribution changes. The higher the solids loading, the more the
swirl is reduced. The spinning center of the gas flowdeviates from
the cyclone geometrical center of the cyclone. When inlet solids
concentrations are 2 kg/m
3
and 10 kg/m3, in the region of r/
Rb0.6, the downward axial velocity increases. Near the wall
region, the axial velocity reduces. The range of downward flow
region increases and the center upward axial velocity increases.
This is the benefit to the particles separation. The presence of the
solid particles affecting the gas flow field can be discussed from
two aspects. On the one hand, the inject particles momentum
contribute to the momentum of the gas stream, especially to the
tangential momentum. On the other hand, the velocity slip exists
between gas and particles. The presence of particles hinders the
gas flow. The smaller the particle diameter is, the former factor
affects more. While the bigger the particle diameter is, the latter
factor affects more. For the particle group, the higher the mass
loading, the latter factor affects more.
3.3. Particles separation characteristic in the inner swirl region
The results of the solids concentration distribution show the
inner swirl entrainment has a great effect on the motion of small
particles and resulting in lower collection efficiency to small
particles. Therefore, this section will discuss the separation
characteristic of different diameter particles in the inner swirl
region. The concepts of back-mixing rate, first escape rate and
second escape rate are put forward.
Back-mixing rate: It is defined as the ratio of the particles
entrainment mass flow rate through the upward flow region of
the dust discharge cross section to the inlet particles mass flow
rate.
Fig. 11. Radial profiles of the tangential gas velocity (left), axial velocity (right) at axial location Z=224 mm (top) and Z=424 mm (bottom).
102 G. Wan et al. / Powder Technology 183 (2008) 94104
First escape rate: The experiment results of gas flow field in
cyclone shows, in the range of 0.25 D below the vortex finder,
the short-cut flow is observed [20]. The ratio of the particles
short-cut flow mass flow rate to the inlet particles mass
flow rate is defined as the first escape rate. It can be used to
evaluate the influence of short-cut flow on particles collection
efficiency.
Second escape rate: In the circular surface of the inner swirl
region (r/Rr
t
/R) on the vortex finder short-cut flow bottom
interface (Z=75 mm), the product of the circular surface area,
the particles upward axial velocity and the particle concentra-
tion is the escape particles mass flow rate caused by the inner
swirl. The ratio of this mass flow rate to the inlet particles mass
flow rate is defined as the second escape rate.
It can be used to estimate the decrease of the collection
efficiency of cyclone separator caused by the inner swirl entrain-
ment. The difference between the second escape rate and the back-
mixing rate can be used to measure the secondary separation ability
of the inner swirl.
The particles entrainment and escape are shown schemati-
cally in Fig. 12.
Fig. 13 shows the different diameter particles back-mixing
rate, the first escape rate and the second escape rate. The bigger
the particles are, the smaller the back-mixing rate, the first
escape rate and the second escape rate are. The 1.5 m particles
back-mixing rate is smaller than the 4 m particles. This is due
to most 1.5 m particles escape from vortex finder on the effect
of inner swirl entrainment, before they attain the dust discharge
and enter into the dust hopper. This is in accordance with the
change of particle concentration axial distribution as shown in
Fig. 9.
4. Conclusions
The different diameters particle concentration distribution in
a scroll cyclone separator simulation results show an unsteady
spiral dust strand near the cyclone wall and a dust ring near the
cyclone top plate for the larger particles are observed. The short-
cut flow is detected below the vortex finder 0.25 D where the
particle concentration is high, especially for the smaller particles.
The axial profiles of the particle concentration showed that there
exists serious particles entrainment within the height 0.5 D
above the dust discharge. The smaller the particles, the more
serious particles entrainment from the dust hopper is. From dust
discharge to separated space top, the particle concentration
decreases gradually due to the secondary separation effect of
inner swirl. The gas flow field has significantly changed as a
result of the presence of the solid particles. The higher the solids
loading, the more the swirl is reduced. The concepts of back-
mixing rate, first escape rate, second escape rate are put forward.
The results can provide fundamentals for further study of gas
solid separation models and performance calculation in gas
cyclones
Notations
C particle concentration, kg/m
3
C
i
inlet particle concentration, kg/m
3
D cyclone separator diameter, mm
d
p
particles diameter, m
M
D
particle cumulative fraction oversize
N
p
number of particle parcels
q
b
back-mixing rate, %
q
e
1
first escape rate, %
q
e
2
second escape rate, %
r random radial position, mm
R cyclone separator radius, mm
r
t
maximum tangential velocity radial position, mm
V
i
inlet gas velocity, m/s
Fig. 13. Back-mixing rate, the first and the second escape rate of different
diameter particles.
Fig. 12. Scheme of particles entrainment and escape.
103 G. Wan et al. / Powder Technology 183 (2008) 94104
Y radial coordinate, mm
Z axial coordinate, mm
particle phase volume fraction
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial assistance
from the National Key Project of Basic Research of the Ministry
for Science and Technology of China (No. 2005CB22120103).
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