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ISSN 0104-6632
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Petrleo Brasileiro S.A., PETROBRAS, AB-RE/TR/OT, Phone: +(55) (21) 3224-4255, Fax: +(55) (21) 3224-1767,
Av. Repblica do Chile 65, Sala 2102, Centro, CEP: 20031-912, Rio de Janeiro - RJ, Brazil.
E-mail: martignoni@petrobras.com.br,
2
Instituto Nacional da Propriedade Industrial (INPI), DIRPA / DQUIM II,
Phone: +(55) (21) 9300-0623, Praa Mau 07, Centro, Rio de Janeiro - RJ, Brazil.
E-mail: sergiob@inpi.gov.br
3
Universidade Estadual de Campinas, UNICAMP, Faculdade de Engenharia Qumica (FEQ), PQGe
Phone: +(55) (19) 35213855, Av. Albert Einstein, 500, Cidade Universitria Zeferino Vaz,
CEP: 13083-970, Cx. P. 6066, Campinas - SP, Brazil. E-mail: clquintani@yahoo.com.br
(Received: December 12, 2005 ; Accepted: December 5, 2006)
Abstract - Cyclone models have been used without relevant modifications for more than a century. Most of
the attention has been focused on finding new methods to improve performance parameters. Recently, some
studies were conducted to improve equipment performance by evaluating geometric effects on projects. In
this work, the effect of cyclone geometry was studied through the creation of a symmetrical inlet and a volute
scroll outlet section in an experimental cyclone and comparison to an ordinary single tangential inlet. The
study was performed for gas-solid flow, based on an experimental study available in the literature, where a
conventional cyclone model was used. Numerical experiments were performed by using CFX 5.7.1. The axial
and tangential velocity components were evaluated using RSM and LES turbulence models. Results showed
that these new designs can improve the cyclone performance parameters significantly and very interesting
details were found on cyclone fluid dynamics properties using RSM and LES.
Keywords: CFD; Cyclones; Performance; RSM; LES.
INTRODUCTION
Cyclones are widely used for removal dust of
gaseous flows in industrial processes. Cyclone dust
collectors have been used in many industrial
facilities to collect solid particles from gas-solid
flows and to reduce air pollution originating in
chimney smoke from chemical plant drier equipment
(Ogawa, 1997). Currently, with new engineering
applications of cyclones as dryers, reactors and
particularly in the removal of high-cost catalysts
from gases in petroleum refineries, industries require
*To whom correspondence should be addressed
84
+ . ( u ) = 0.
t
(1)
u
+ . ( u u
t
+ . u .
)=
p +
u u
(2)
(3)
u = u + u'
' '
u iu
t
+
x k
Uk u i u j = Pij + ij +
x k
2
k2
+ cs
u i u j 2
ij
x k 3
(4)
85
P = u.u ( U ) + ( U ) u.u
T
____
k k k
+ . __ __ k =
k k k
t
(5)
(6)
ef
= . kk k + G k k k
+ . ( U ) =
( c 1 P c 2 ) +
t
k
1
+.
R S
k2
+ C R S
(7)
Brazilian Journal of Chemical Engineering Vol. 24, No. 01, pp. 83 - 94, January - March, 2007
86
Ui
f = f + f'
with
(8)
where fis the small scale part, and f , the large scale
part, is defined through volume averaging as
f ( xi , t ) =
G (x
(9)
) + ( u i u j ) = p +
x j
x i
2 Ui
x j x j
(10)
__
U = U + u'
(11)
)(
u i u j = Ui + u i ' U j + u j ' =
(12)
( 2)
( 3)
ij = u i u j Ui U j
(13)
) + ( ij + Ui U j ) = p + 2 Ui
x j
x i
x j x j
( )
ij
x j
(14)
ij = u i u j Ui U j
= Lij + Cij + R ij
Lij = Ui U j Ui U j = Leonard Stresses
Cij = Ui u j ' + U j u i ' = Cross Terms
(15)
( 4)
Ui
x j
Vol
Ui
) + ( Ui U j ) = p + 2 Ui
x i
x j x j
(17)
qSGS = S
(18)
87
where
S = 2Sij Sij
NUMERICAL METHODS
1/ 2
(19)
(20)
(21)
with
3/ 4
1 2
CS =
3Ck
= 0.18
(22)
Dimension (m)
0.102
0.0508
0.0254
0.1522
0.0508
0.108
0.203
88
89
2,484,087
2,639,830
2,735,208
Solid Phase
Gas Phase
Material
Solid velocity
Solid mass concentration
Medium diameter
Density
Viscosity
Solid flow
Volume fraction
Material
Gas velocity
Density
Gas flow
Viscosity
Brazilian Journal of Chemical Engineering Vol. 24, No. 01, pp. 83 - 94, January - March, 2007
90
207
97.05
204
201
P (Pa)
198
96.95
195
Efficiency
192
96.90
189
96.85
186
183
97.00
96.80
0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
3.0
3.5
4.0
4.5
5.0
In this section, the numerical results for the gassolid flow in the three types of cyclones are
presented. The initial total velocity for both gas and
solid phases was 15.2 m/s. Figure 5 shows the maps
of tangential velocity for case 1. In this figure, we
can see that the LES turbulence model was able to
show the profile for gas flow inside the cyclone. It
doesnt appear to be continuous, but is winding with
discontinued layers, while the RSM formulation did
not show this important characteristic. Bernardo et
al. (2005) observed this LES capability when
working with inclined inlet section in the cyclone
proposed by Patterson and Munz (1989).
For case 2 (symmetrical inlet) and case 3 (double
volute cyclone) it was observed that the LES
formulation did not have the same characteristics for
Figure 6: Maps of tangential velocity for all geometric cases using the LES formulation:
(A) conventional cyclone; (B) symmetrical inlet; (C) scroll inlet and outlet section.
Brazilian Journal of Chemical Engineering Vol. 24, No. 01, pp. 83 - 94, January - March, 2007
91
92
Symmetrical inlet
Scroll inlet and outlet
Conventional cyclone
20
15
10
0,0
0,2
0,4
0,6
0,8
1,0
Figure 7: Tangential velocity for all geometric cases using the LES formulation.
Quantitative
Parameters
Results:
Cyclone
Performance
93
Figure 8: Maps of pressure for the numerical solutions: (a) conventional cyclone;
(b) symmetrical inlet; (c) scroll inlet and outlet.
Table 4: Performance parameters of the cyclone designs proposed.
Total Pressure Drop
(Pa)
RSM
LES
440
490
Conventional Cyclone
Symmetrical Inlet
182
184
97.04
97.03
431
432
97.37
96.55
579
92.00
Brazilian Journal of Chemical Engineering Vol. 24, No. 01, pp. 83 - 94, January - March, 2007
94