Powder Technology 385 (2021) 357–374

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Powder Technology

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/powtec

Performance evaluation of standard cyclone separators by using

CFD–DEM simulation with realistic bio-particulate matter
Mahmoud A. El-Emam a,b, Ling Zhou a,⁎, Weidong Shi c, Chen Han d
a
Research Center of Fluid Machinery Engineering & Technology, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China
b
Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, Alexandria University, Shatby 21526, Egypt
c
School of Mechanical Engineering, Nantong University, Nantong 226019, China
d
Department of Physics, Changji University, Changji 831100, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: As an abatement emissions control and energy-consuming device, cyclone separators are the most common
Received 13 September 2020 device used in bioprocessing to separate fine and coarse particulate matter (PM) from the gas flow. In this inves-
Received in revised form 22 February 2021 tigation, four standard cyclones geometries viz. 1D2D, 2D2D, 1D3D, and 1D3D with 2D2D inlet (1D3D/w2D2D) in
Accepted 3 March 2021
addition to a designed one, were simulated to investigate the performance characteristics. The D's refers to the
Available online 6 March 2021
cyclone diameter, and the numbers before each D's relate to the length of the cylindrical and conical sections, re-
Keywords:
spectively. The PM used for testing and modeling was conducted on two types of real heterogeneous bioparticles
Air-particles flow (jojoba seeds and their leaves). This research is considered the first head start approach to predict the cyclone
Computational fluid dynamics performance under the true shape modeling of PM. Discrete Element Method (DEM) was employed to simulate
Discrete element method the trajectory of each particle, taking into consideration the interactions and collisions. Simultaneously, the Com-
Cyclonic separation putational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) was used to simulate the highly curved streamlines and the chaotic turbulence
of the continuum airflow with the Reynolds stress turbulence model (RSM). The designed cyclone was used to
validate the results, which showed a good agreement between simulated data and the experimental work. The
result showed that the 1D2D cyclone design has a better performance than that of the other cyclones. The
methods used in this work for analyzing the phenomena occurring inside the cyclone separator allow for the con-
clusion that cyclone performance not only varies significantly with the cyclone type but the operating conditions
as well. With these presented characteristics and evaluations, industrialists can utilize the mentioned designs for
different processing to get high performance using a coarse and large PM process.
© 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction separator devices will be simulated, and the performance will be

Biomass products extracted from new renewable sources of energy
and materials are considered vital in energy conservation programs.
Biomass and bioenergy cultivation from green sources can be useful re-
newable energy sources to be utilized [1]. As one of the green sources,
Jojoba plants are of interest since their seeds contain about 50%–60%
by weight of oil on a dry basis [2,3]. It can represent new sustainable
and alternative energy sources that can replace fossil fuels and other
nonrenewable fuels in industries and some certain cases [4]. One of
the stumbling blocks that face jojoba harvesting and industry is the
seeds' purification, which mixes with foreign materials, mainly its
leaves. In this investigation, the cleaning and separation processes dur-
ing the pneumatic separation of the seeds using standard cyclone
⁎ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: lingzhou@ujs.edu.cn (L. Zhou).
evaluated to identify the best cyclone design for this process.
Cyclones have often been regarded as low-efficiency separators, es-
pecially fine particles with a size of less than 5 μm in diameter [5]. How-
ever, efficiency varies greatly with particle size, cyclone design, and
many operation conditions, separations of the mixture of solid particles
are required in many industrial processes. Generally, the propagation of
the gas cyclone separators is because of the uncomplicated construc-
tions with small manufacture and maintenance costs, besides their
high adaptability at many operating conditions with relative economi-
cally in power, etc. (to name a few) [6,7]. Virtually, cyclones are
regarded as static devices with no moving parts that can accelerate
the natural separation of the particulate matter (PM) from the gaseous
stream. Despite their simple operation, the fluid dynamics and flow
structure field in the cyclone separator very complex. Cyclones are typ-
ically using the centrifugal and gravitational forces at each point inside
to separate suspended dispersed solid phase from the continuous
phase (air) stream [8,9]. Because of the centrifugal force field, the

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.powtec.2021.03.006
0032-5910/© 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
M.A. El-Emam, L. Zhou, W. Shi et al. Powder Technology 385 (2021) 357–374

Nomenclature

ρf Fluid density
vf Fluid average velocity
p Pressure shared by two phases
τf Viscous stress tensor
Cij Fluid convection
DT, ij Turbulent diffusion
DL, ij Molecular diffusion
Pij Stress production rate of u0i u0j
Gij Buoyancy production rate of u0i u0j
ϕij Pressure-strain correlation
εij Dissipation
Fij Force production by system rotation
ϕij, 1 Slow pressure-strain correlation
ϕij, 2 Rapid pressure-strain correlation
ϕij, 3 Wall-reflection term
Fnij Normal contact force
Ftij Tangential contact force
FCij Contact force acting on particle i by particle j
Ffi Fluid-particle interaction force on the particle i
Mij Torque acting on particle i by particle j
Fn,
i
T
Normal contact forces at the current time
n, (T−ΔT)
Fi Normal contact forces at the previous time
dv Diameter with the same volume of the actual particle
ηs Separation efficiency
ηc Cleaning efficiency
ηeff Cyclone effectiveness
mi Particle mass
ui Translation of particle i
Fig. 1. Three-dimensional line drawing of the designed reverse flow cyclone components,
ωi Rotation of particle i 1. vortex finder, 2. inlet portion, 3. cylindrical body, 4. conical part, 5. seed's outlet.
F gi Gravitational force
Ii Moment of inertia of particle i
μt Turbulent viscosity
d Normal distance to the wall process, when the air- granular flow inter through the cyclone inlet at
dp Diameter of a spherical particle the upper part of the barrel portion, it makes some spirals with rota-
∅ Particle sphericity tional movements. This motion pushes the heavy particles (seeds)
ΔT Timestep near the cyclone wall then gets away from the cyclone through a duct
ΔSn Change in contact normal overlap at the bottom of the conical section. In contrast, the air and leaves
Sn, T Normal overlap at the current time swirl reverse the direction upward in the middle of the cone and making
Sn, T−ΔT Normal overlap at the previous time an inner vortex to escape the cyclone from the vortex finder.
Knu Unloading contact stiffnesses Commonly, to describe the cyclone geometry easily, the dimensions
Knl Loading contact stiffnesses of the various cyclone parts are usually formulated in a dimensionless
Ei Particle Young's modulus fraction as a ratio to the cyclone diameter. This method allows a com-
Ew Boundary Young's modulus parison between the cyclone designs without using the actual size of
ε Coefficient of restitution each part. Specifically, in the agricultural processing industry field,
Z Particle size or geometry 1D3D [11] and 2D2D [12] cyclone designs, which are early recom-
μs Static frictions coefficient mended, are the most common separator devices used for fine PM con-
μd Dynamic frictions coefficient trol. Also, 1D2D [13], namely low-pressure cyclone design, was invented
Cd Drag coefficient instead of using the covered condenser drums, which is suitable in the
Rep Particle Reynolds number application of axial-flow fan exhausts [14]. The numbers before each
K1 Stokes' shape factor D's relate to the length of the cylindrical and conical sections, respec-
K2 Newton's shape factor tively, while the D's refers to the cyclone diameter. For instance, the
D Domain diameter 1D3D and 1D2D cyclones have a cylindrical length equal to the cyclone
diameter and a conical length of three and two times the cyclone diam-
eter, respectively. Whereas the D's in the 2D2D cyclone means that it
separation process for the large PM (disperse phase) is much better and has cylindrical and conical lengths of two times the cyclone diameter.
higher in the cyclones rather than using dusting rooms [10]. Typically, the 1D3D cyclone has twice inlet geometry design, a tall
The designed reverse flow cyclone separator type [3], which is ex- and narrow inlet dimensions referred to the traditional 1D3D cyclone,
perimentally used to validate the simulation methodology in this while the other inlet is similarly modified to 2D2D cyclones inlet. Sev-
study case, consists of three main parts; a cylindrical body, a conical por- eral advantages have been recorded when using 2D2D inlet design on
tion, and a small central cylinder, namely vertex finder. It is extended the 1D3D cyclone and increasing the seeds outlet diameter (tail cone)
from the top surface of the cyclone to just below the entrance through, on the 2D2D and 1D3D cyclones from D/4 to larger D/3 size. These mod-
which is relatively responsible for discharging the undesired materials, ifications can significantly reduce emissions, back pressure, choking
see Fig. 1. Theoretically, in our PM (jojoba seeds and its leaves) case happenings and improve cyclone separation efficiency [15,16].

358
M.A. El-Emam, L. Zhou, W. Shi et al.
Fig. 2. Basic structure diagram of the DEM algorithm.
Note that the main difference between the designed cyclone and the
standard cyclones is that the designed cyclone is a cyclone constructed
with modified dimensions for the purpose of the experimental tests to
separate the bio-particles based on the recommendations of the litera-
ture review [3]. While the standard cyclones are primary cyclones
early developed by investigators with specific and standard dimensions,
as mentioned before. One of the main purposes of this investigation is to
predict and compare each cyclone's performance and determine which
design is the best for the separation process. No matter the type of cy-
clone used, cyclones must be sized correctly according to the airflow
rate, correctly configured for the application, and properly constructed
and maintained to perform at optimum efficiency [17]. Experimental
and primitive numerical studies have been investigated in the last few
decades to overview the flow field inside these standard cyclone separa-
tors [15,18,19]. The design of a 1D2D cyclone for cotton gin processing is
significantly suitable for high-lint trash concentration. However, 1D3D
and 2D2D are the most efficient cyclone collectors for fine dust less
than 100 μm in diameter and sometimes for large PM under specific
conditions, but more horsepower is required [20–22].
Underaspecificcondition,thecycloneperformancecan beimprovedby
usinghigh inletvelocities,whiletheperformancecanbedecreasedwiththe
increasing of the cyclone diameter [23]. Since the cyclone typically sepa-
rates a wide range of PM sizes, it naturally works with different efficiencies.
Early, most of the empirical models carried out did not include many critical
factors that affect the cyclone performance, such as the unsteadiness and
asymmetry, high turbulence, and reversal flow. Furthermore, under high
swirls and turbulence characteristics, the traditional mathematical models
could not predict cyclone performance accurately hence could not achieve
the desired effect in their industrial application [24,25].
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Powder Technology 385 (2021) 357–374
On the other hand, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) models are
mainly used to capture the vigorous swirling and the turbulent contin-
uous fluid flow characteristics easily [26]. Thus, it can give significant
data in predicting the aerodynamic behavior of the cyclonic separation
process. The first CFD model for simulating flows with high turbulence
and swirl field inside the gas cyclones was developed by Boysan et al.
[27]. The result showed that the standard k − ε turbulence model was
inadequate since it gave more turbulence viscosities and unrealistic tan-
gential velocities. Recently, turbulence models based on higher-order
closure such as the Reynolds Stress Model, RSM, along with unsteady
Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) formulation give reasonable
numerical prediction capabilities [28,29]. Since this method has a high
computational cost, the newest developments go into hybrid models
that can resolve critical regions finer [30,31]. A complete overview of
the numerical CFD turbulence models used for cyclone separators is
mentioned by Cortés and Gil [32], requiring proper resolution of the
flow features to obtain successful simulation.
The existence of PM with the airflow inside the cyclone demon-
strates additional complexity calculation during the simulation. So, Dis-
crete Element Method (DEM) is the best numerical technique
developed by Cundall and Strack [33] to track each PM in the system in-
dividually using the Lagrangian formulation technique. It can accurately
predict the granular flow behavior and analyze all physical phenomena
considering particle-particle, particle-boundary, and fluid-particle con-
tact basis of Newton's laws of motion [26,34,35]. As shown in Fig. 2
[36,37], a schematic flow-chart is drawn to put a good overview of the
DEM algorithm.
The CFD multiphase models cannot estimate PM phases for gas-solid
flows because many restrictions happen when the dense flow is applied
M.A. El-Emam, L. Zhou, W. Shi et al. Powder Technology 385 (2021) 357–374

[36,37]. Those restrictions can be exceeded by coupling the methodolo-
gies of DEM with CFD. This coupled process increases the computational
time but enables a resolved particle-particle interaction combined with
gas to solid and solid to gas modeled interactions. CFD-DEM coupling
can be computationally done by one of two data transfer methods as
one-way or two-way depending on particle-fluid interactions and con-
centration effects [38–40]. For high dense particle flow, the two-way
CFD-DEM coupling approach is suitable, where the behavior of the dis-
crete phase in the CFD model is described by the results coming from
the DEM during the simulation [41]. On the other hand, when using a
one-way coupling approach, the fluid flow characteristics modeled
first by CFD, then the result is exported to DEM simulation to add the ex-
ternal force on the particles. In this method, the system did not contain a
large number of particles, and the fluid flow affects the particle move-
ment, so it was strongly recommended for cyclone separators [42,43].
where ρf is the fluid density, t is the time, ∂t is the differential oper-
ator per time,vf the mean fluid velocity, p is the pressure, τf is the fluid
viscous stress tensor, g is the gravity, and u0i u0j is the mean fluctuating
fluid velocity where ρf u0i u0j is the Reynolds stress nonlinear term due
to turbulence. This term can be solved by the Reynolds Stress Model
(RSM) provided in the CFD ANSYS Fluent® software, as shown in the
following part.
Due to the intense swirls and anisotropic turbulence inside the cy-
clone separators, the Reynolds stress model (RSM) has been chosen in
the current study case [5,28,51,52]. The algebraic transport equation of
the Reynolds stress ρf u0i u0j can be given as formulated in (Eq. 3) [53–55]:
∂

ρ u0 u0 þ C ij ¼ DT,ij þ DL,ij þ P ij þ Gij þ ϕij þ εij þ F ij þ Suser ð3Þ
∂t f i j

Where the first term from the left side is the Reynolds stress tensor,
2. Scope of this work
Cij is the convection term; DT,ij is the turbulent diffusion, DL,ij is the mo-
lecular diffusion, Pij and Gij are the stress and buoyancy production rate
Most of the numerical studies mentioned in the current references
have been carried on fine to tiny particles (4 μm - 2 mm) [26,44–46] of u0i u0j , respectively, ϕij is the pressure strain, εij is the dissipation, Fij is
and how the cyclone geometry and its operating conditions affect its the production by system rotation, and Suser is the user-defined source
performance. Most of these simulations assumed the shape of the parti- term, which is depending on the study case. In the CFD ANSYS Fluent®
cles to be spherical due to the simplicity of contact detection and me- software, the user can specify the custom source terms for the different
chanics. As a result, the obtained data is not accurate. Moreover, there types of solved transport equations depending on the study case. How-
are no investigations published until now, taking into account the true ever, this term has been neglected in this investigation, and the default
shape modeling of granular flow inside the gas cyclone separator code is used.
using the CFD–DEM coupling approach. So, the main scope and novelty According to the isothermal flow assumption in this studying case,
of this investigation are to characterize the cyclone performance under the convection, molecular diffusion, and production by system rotation
true shape modeling of two heterogeneous geometry of bio-PM, namely can be neglected. Whereas the buoyancy production equals zero for iso-
jojoba seeds and their leaves, which is considered the first head ap- thermal flow. The remaining terms are closed by the following Eqns. 4,
proach in this field. This investigation will be carried out and associated 5, 6, and 7:
with the standard cyclones, namely 2D2D, 1D2D, 1D3D, and 1D3D with 0 0
!
2D2D inlet (1D3D/w2D2D), in addition to a designed one across a spe- ∂ μ t ∂ui uj
DT,ij ¼ − ð4Þ
cific value of inlet air velocity. After that, the seed's outlet boundary con- ∂xk σ k ∂xk
dition of the standard cyclones will be modified to predict the optimal
performance. Notably, all the obtained data from the simulations will where μt is the turbulent viscosity, xk component of the unit normal to
be validated with the experimental result of the designed cyclone to the wall, σk is a constant.
give confidence to the simulation methodology. This designed cyclone  
∂uj ∂u
is used in our previous investigation as a separating unit in the jojoba P ij ¼ ρ u0i u0k þ u0j u0k i ð5Þ
harvesting machine, which has different geometry comparing to the ∂xk ∂xk
standard cyclones. In this way, a description of the reverse flow cyclone
separator will be introduced and developed using a one-way coupling of ∂u0i ∂u0j
εij ¼ 2μ ð6Þ
CFD–DEM approach that can be used in engineering applications. ∂xk ∂xk

3. Computational methods description ϕij ¼ ϕij,1 þ ϕij,2 þ ϕij,3 ð7Þ

3.1. Fluid phase where ϕij,1 is the slow pressure-strain which representing a return to
isotropy by purely turbulent interactions [56], ϕij,2 is the rapid
Usually, to drive the continuum flow pattern, the system domain is pressure-strain taking account of the return to isotropy by the interac-
discretized in a small grid cell, and the fluid phase motion is calculated tion between the turbulence and the mean velocity gradients [57], and
by the locally volume-averaged Navier–Stokes equations [38,47–50]. ϕij,3 is the wall-reflection term which is responsible for the damping of
In the CFD simulation, the three-dimensional (3-D) governing equa- the velocity fluctuation component. Each component of the pressure
tions that control the gas flow in the cyclone separator are typically re- strain can be formulated as following Eqns. 8, 9 and 10:
ferred to continuity or mass conservation and momentum conservation,  
ϵ 2
as formulated in Eqns. 1 and 2, respectively. Computationally, these ϕij,1 ¼ −C 1 ρ u0i u0j − δij k ð8Þ
k 3
equations are solved through the finite volume method using CFD
ANSYS Fluent® software. " !#
2 ∂u

 ϕij,2 ¼ −C 2 P ij − δij −u0i u0j i ð9Þ
∂ ρf
 3 ∂xj
þ ∇: ρf vf ¼ 0 ð1Þ
dt   3
ϵ 3 3 C 1 k2

 ϕij,3 ¼ C 01 u0k u0m nk nm δij − u0i u0k nk nj − u0j u0k nk ni
∂ ρf vf

 k 2 2 εd
  3=2
þ ∇: ρf vf vf ¼ −∇p þ ∇τf þ ρf g þ ∇: −ρf u0i u0j ð2Þ 0 3 3 C1 k
dt þ C 2 ϕkm,2 nk nm δij − ϕik,2 nk nj − ϕjk,2 nk ni ð10Þ
2 2 εd

360
M.A. El-Emam, L. Zhou, W. Shi et al. Powder Technology 385 (2021) 357–374

Fig. 3. Description of particle collision model [60].

where nk is the component of the unit normal to the wall, d is the nor- During the collision between two particles i and j, the overlapping
mal distance to the wall, k is the turbulent kinetic energy, C1, C2, C′1, phenomena cannot be neglected because they can significantly
and C2′ are constants [50]. affect the simulating result [59,60]. The graphical draft is shown in
Fig. 3 illustrates the interaction forces vectors considering overlapping
3.2. Discrete solid phase and torques implicated in DEM simulation.
In the following section, regarding the previous investigations
Using the Lagrangian method in any DEM software is the primary [38,39,61–63] in this limited field, the contact forces will briefly be de-
way of tracking the granular phase trajectory in the considered domain. scribed based on the selected models and simulating methodology
Here, the PM movement is divided into two parts, the translation utilized.
motion qualified by the fundamental equations of Newton's second
law (Eq. 11) and rotation motion described by Euler's law (Eq. 12) 3.2.1. Normal contact forces
[48,49,58]. The Hysteretic Linear Spring Model [64] was employed in this paper,
which can avoid the overhead of long simulation time when simulating
nc the plastic energy dissipation on a contact. Also, the energy dissipation
dui i
mi ¼ ∑ F cij þ F fi þ F gi ð11Þ is not considered the neighboring particle's velocities and loading rate,
dt j¼1
making the energy dissipation insensitive to other contacts. It can also
nc
accurately model the compressible materials that perfectly simulate
dωi i
the non-adhesive particle flow [38,61,65]. To describe this model math-
Ii ¼ ∑ Mij ð12Þ
dt j¼1 ematically, the following Eqns. 14 to 17 were developed and used by the
DEM method [63,64]:
Where mi is the particle mass, ui and ωi are the translation and the 8

rotation velocities of particle i, respectively, F Cij and Mij are the contact < min F n;ðT−ΔT Þ þ K nu ΔSn ; K nl Sn;T ; if ΔSn ≥0
i
F n;T ¼
 ð14Þ
force and torque acting on particle i by particle j or wall, respectively, i : max F n;ðT−ΔT Þ þ K n ΔSn ; 0:001 K n Sn;T ; if ΔSn < 0
u l
F gi is the gravitational force, F fi is the fluid-particle interaction forces i

(Pressure gradient force and drag force), t is the time, and Ii is the mo-
ment of inertia of particle i. The overall contact force, F Cij acting on parti- ΔSn ¼ Sn,T −Sn,T−ΔT ð15Þ
cle i by particle j can be analyzed as normal contact force F nij and
tangential contact force F tij as shown in (Eq. 13): Whereas:
8
F Cij ¼ F nij þ F tij ð13Þ >
> 1 1
< þ Particle−Particle
1 Ei Z E j Z
¼ ð16Þ
K nl >
> 1 1
: þ Particle−wall
Ei Z Ew Z

K nl
K nu ¼ ð17Þ
ε2

Fig. 4. A typical cycle of normal force–overlap response.
Where Fn,T
i and Fi
n,(T−ΔT)
are the normal contact forces at the current
time T and the previous time T−ΔT, respectively, where ΔT is the
timestep, ΔSn is the change of the normal overlap, and Sn,T, Sn,T−ΔTare
the normal overlap at the current and previous time, respectively,
Knu and Knl are the unloading and loading contact stiffnesses, respectively,
while w refers to wall or boundary, Ei and Ew are Young's modulus of
particle and boundary, respectively, ε is the restitution coefficient, and
Z is the particle size.

361
M.A. El-Emam, L. Zhou, W. Shi et al. Powder Technology 385 (2021) 357–374

Note that the unloading force is limited by the value of 0.001 Knl Sn, T Table 1
to ensure that the normal force fades away at zero overlappings. A Non-dimensionalized dimensions components of the investigated cyclones.

typical cycle of loading and unloading with the normal force-overlap Component Geometry Cyclone type
response for the hysteretic linear spring model starting from point (A) Designed 1D2D 2D2D 1D3D 1D3D/w2D2D
to point (C) is shown in Fig. 4.
Cyclone Dc = 320 mm Dc Dc Dc Dc Dc
diameter
3.2.2. Tangential contact force Cylinder Lc 1.31 Dc Dc 2 × Dc Dc Dc
Confidently, the Linear Spring Coulomb Limit Model is still the most length
popular and convenient model used in this current investigation. During Cone length Zc 2.34 Dc 2 × Dc 2 × Dc 3 × Dc 3 × Dc
the tangential contact, the particle sliding force plays a vital role in de- Vortex Dv 0.38 Dc Dc /1.6 Dc /2 Dc /2 Dc /2
diameter
termining the total tangential contact force, where (Eq. 18) can express Vortex Lv 0.78 Dc 9Dc /8 5Dc /8 9Dc /8 5Dc /8
this effect. length

 Inlet hight Hc 0.39 Dc Dc /2 Dc /2 Dc Dc /2
t,ðT−ΔT Þ
F t,T
i ¼ min F i þ K nl :ΔSt , μ F n,T
i ð18Þ Inlet width Wc 0.31 Dc Dc /4 Dc /4 Dc /8 Dc /4
Seeds outlet Do 0.31 Dc Dc /2 Dc /4 Dc /3 Dc /3
duct
Where F t,i T and F t,(T−ΔT)
i are the tangential contact forces at the cur-
rent and previous time, respectively, ΔSt is the change in the tangential
overlapping during the time step, and μ is the friction coefficient, which
densities, properties, alignment, and concentration. Thus, the Ganser
represents the sliding during contact.
drag model can deal correctly with these phenomena using two shape
According to (Eq. 19), the user can define the friction coefficient fac-
factors and the particle relative Reynolds number in the governing
tor as static and dynamic coefficient parameters depending on the tan-
equations as indicated in (Eqns. 20, 21, 22, and 23).
gential sliding contact.
 Cd 24 h 0:6567
i 0:4305
μs if no sliding at the contact ¼ 1 þ 0:1118 Rep K 1 K 2 þ ð20Þ
μ¼ ð19Þ K 2 Rep K 1 K 2 1 þ Rep3305
μd if sliding act at the contact K1 K2

Whereas:
Where μs and μd are the static and dynamic friction coefficients,
respectively.  −1
dp 2 −1 dv
K1 ¼ þ ∅2 −2:25 ð21Þ
3dv 3 D
3.3. Drag model
0:5743

In this numerical study, to predict the real behavior of the PM flow in K 2 ¼ 101:8148ð− log 10 ∅Þ ð22Þ
the cyclone separator, the one-way coupling between CFD and DEM ac-
companied by a convenient drag correlation model was used [35]. A sin- ρf vf −ui dp
Rep ¼ ð23Þ
gle particle drag model, namely the Ganser drag model [38,61,66], is μf
successfully utilized because the discrete phase flow is considered a di-
lute flow where every single particle is treated individually. As a result Where Cd is the drag coefficient, Rep is the particle Reynolds number,
of that, the porosity in the governing equations of the model is K1 and K2 are Stokes' shape factor and Newton's shape factor, respec-
neglected. Another significant reason to use this model is that the PM tively, dp is the diameter of a spherical particle which has a projected
used in the simulation is considered non-spherical, different in shape, area equal to the actual particle projected area, ∅ is the particle

Fig. 5. Standard cyclones configurations; a) 1D2D, b) 2D2D, c) 1D3D, d) 1D3D/w2D2D.

362
M.A. El-Emam, L. Zhou, W. Shi et al.
Fig. 6. CFD grid mesh of the cyclones; a) Designed, b)1D2D, c) 2D2D, d) 1D3D, e) 1D3D/w2D2D.
Table 2
Number of grid cells in the investigated cyclones.
Parameter Cyclone type
Designed 1D2D 2D2D 1D3D 1D3D/w2D2D
Number of grid cells 367,198 606,208 486,824 468,094 516,421
sphericity, dv is the diameter of a spherical particle with the same vol-
ume of the actual particle, μf is the fluid viscosity, and D is the domain
diameter.
4. Numerical simulations methodology
In this study, the numerical simulations of CFD ANSYS Fluent® and
ROCKY® DEM software have been performed on a workstation with
Intel(R) Xenon(R) CPU E5–2620 v4 @ 2.10 GHz and 64G RAM. Herein,
the one-way coupling of the CFD–DEM is utilized and recommended be-
cause the particles' movement is only influenced by the fluid flow (di-
lute flow), and the particle velocity at cyclone inlet is considered to be
the same as the surrounding fluid [67,68]. Besides, the one-way cou-
pling is advantageous and entirely recommended in many investiga-
tions, especially for simulating the large particle in the separation
process and unconfined homogeneous flows with different particles'
densities [38,43,62], such as this study case. In this investigation, four
standard geometries of reverse flow cyclone separator, namely 1D2D,
2D2D, 1D3D, and 1D3D/w2D2D, in addition to a designed cyclone
with 320 mm in diameter, were modeled and used. The standard cy-
clones configuration and dimensions are illustrated in Fig. 5 and Table 1.
4.1. Computational mesh
Three-dimensional unstructured meshes [26,69] were performed on
the investigated cyclones, as shown in Fig. 6. Generally, in this investiga-
tion, some steps have been tracked to ensure that the solution is inde-
pendent of the mesh resolution. According to the Ansys Fluent®
recommendations [70], the initial simulation with the initial mesh is
first to run to ensure that the residual error convergence is in the
range of 10−3 to 10−5, monitor points are steady, and imbalances
below 1%. Fortunately, the result is not converged; thus, the mesh
cells throughout the cyclone's domain have been globally refined, and
the simulation has been repeated. Note that the mesh has been refined
to 1.6 times the initial mesh size. At this level, the simulation has been
run to ensure that the residual error reached the convergence criteria
mentioned above, where the monitor points are steady and the
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Powder Technology 385 (2021) 357–374
imbalances are below 1%. Thus, the monitor point values have been
compared before and after refining within the allowable tolerance. It
was found that the solution is changing with the refinement of mesh,
which means that the mesh independent solution has not yet been
achieved. So, the mesh has been refined more, and the process has
been repeated until the solution did not change with mesh changing.
During these processes, the value of y+ is considered to be between
30 and 100. After the mesh independence was achieved, the CFD solu-
tion was transferred to the DEM to run the CFD-DEM coupling simula-
tion. The simulation data with the experimental results have been
compared using the analytical performance Eqs. [71]. Finally, the com-
parison result was found to be in a tolerable range, which means that
the mesh and the simulation are corrected enough. The details of the
CFD grid cells after generating the refined meshing for all cyclone
models are shown in Table 2.
4.2. CFD operating conditions
In these CFD simulations, a converged steady-state result as an initial
condition for the continuous phase flow (air) simulation was applied.
The air properties introduced to the cyclones were assumed as
turbulent, isothermal with a temperature of 25 °C, a density of
1.225 kg.m−3, and kinematic viscosity of 1.7894 × 10−6 kg.m−1 s−1.
The RSM turbulent model was used with standard wall functions to de-
scribe the effects of airflow turbulence behavior. The value of y+ of the
whole calculation model is 30–100, which indicates the near-wall nodes
are not within the laminar sublayer but within the log-log layer. Accord-
ing to the recommendation velocity of dragging jojoba seeds, the
boundary condition of the cyclone air inlet was set as velocity-in of
30 ms−1 [2,3], which is entered normally to the inlet section with uni-
form distribution. The leaves outlet boundary condition was assumed
as an intake fan where the pressure jump was set as 1400 Pascal. At
this value of the pressure jump, the reverse flow of the air can be oc-
curred to help leaves get out from the cyclone through the vortex finder.
In the experiment, an impeller was mounted at the cyclone top portion,
so an intake fan boundary condition was set to the vortex finder. At the
Fig. 7. PM geometries used in DEM simulations; a) leaves, b) seeds.
M.A. El-Emam, L. Zhou, W. Shi et al. Powder Technology 385 (2021) 357–374

face, as shown in Fig. 8 [63]. When the elements move, the relative
movement between them produces linear and angular deformations
on the hypothetical bonds. As a result, forces and moments are created
on the neighboring elements to resist the normal, tangential, bending,
and torsional deformations, as shown in Fig. 8. Each force and moment
related to the hypothetical bond are modeled in the DEM as the sum of
elastic and damping force, as indicated in (Eqns. 24 and 25).

F nb ¼ K nb X nrel þ C nb vnrel ð24Þ

F tb ¼ K tb X trel þ C tb vtrel ð25Þ

where Fnb and Ftb are the normal and tangential (elastic and damping)
forces, Knb and Ktb are the normal and tangential stiffnesses, respectively,
Cnb and Ctb are the normal and tangential damping coefficients, respec-
Fig. 8. Forces and moments acting on a tetrahedral element in a polyhedral particle. tively, Xnrel and Xtrel are the normal and tangential relative displacements
between the center points of the two elements connected by the hypo-
thetical bond, respectively, and vnrel and vtrelare the normal and tangential
seed's outlet portions, the atmospheric pressure inlet boundary condi- relative velocities between the center points of the two elements con-
tion was chosen because, in the actual operation, this outlet was opened nected by the hypothetical bond, respectively.
to let the seeds be trapped outside. The normal and tangential relative displacement component can be
On the other hand, for improving the performance of the standard calculated according to (Eqns. 26 and 27):
cyclones, the seed's outlet boundary condition was modified from pres-
sure inlet to air velocity-in by the value of 15 ms−1 to be similar to the X nrel ¼ X rel en ð26Þ
value of the designed cyclone. By this boundary modification, the per-
formance of the standard cyclone will be changed, as can be discussed X trel ¼ X rel −X nrel ð27Þ
in the following part. The standard no-slip boundary condition was as-
where en is defined by the unit vector in the normal direction. In brief,
sumed at the wall, whereas 5% of turbulence intensity at the inlet and
the relative velocity component can be determined and analyzed simi-
outlets was applied.
larly to the relative displacement. Furthermore, the values of the normal
The second-order upwind discretization scheme was set for mo-
and tangential stiffnesses for the hypothetical bond can be determined
mentum, turbulent kinetic energy, and turbulent dissipation rate to
by Eqns. (28 and 29) [79]:
minimize the numerical dissipation. The convergence criteria were set
as 10−5 for the continuity and 10−3 for other equations. The calculations K nb ¼
ER E i A
ð28Þ
were performed with the double-precision solver to increase the accu- σ lt
racy of estimates and conceptualize the fluid flow behavior. Thus, the
obtained results were exported to ROCKY® DEM software to set the K tb ¼ K r K nb ð29Þ
PM interaction forces.
where ER is the ratio between the normal and tangential Young's
modulus [80,81] which can be inserted by the user of the ROCKY®
4.3. Particulate matter modeling DEM software, A is the area of the triangular contacting face, σ is the di-
mensionless Young's modulus and can be defined by Eq. (30), lt is the
Successfully 3000 PM are modeled and introduced into the cyclone's average length of the edges of all tetrahedra in the particle, Kr is the
inlet as 500 particles of jojoba seeds and 2500 particles of its leaves. At stiffness ratio determined by Eq. (31).
this level, the seeds: leaves ratio is considered to be approximately
50% by weight, depending on their physical properties. According to jo- Ei
σ¼ ð30Þ
joba seeds characteristics [3], the seeds were classified as irregular in K nna lt
shape with vertical and horizontal aspect ratios of 1.6 and 0.75, respec-
tively, and equivalent diameter of 11.64 mm. The seed particle was K ti
Kr ¼ ð31Þ
modeled directly using its true dimensions and shape by ROCKY® K ni
DEM software. Simultaneously, the leaf was modeled as a single particle
by UG graphics Nx 10 CAD software using its actual dimensions and where Knna is the normal stiffness per unit area, and Kti , Kni is the tangen-
shape. The true isometric geometry of the PM that is considered in the tial and normal stiffness of the particle.
current simulation is shown in Fig. 7. On the other hand, the three components of the momentum, as indi-
As mentioned above, the contact plane for spherical particles is or- cated in Fig. (8), are calculated according to Eqns. (32, 33, and 34) [63]:
thogonal to the line that connects the centers of two spheres. Herein,
K nb In n C n In
in our case for non-spherical particles, the methodology of determining M nb ¼ θ þ b ωnrel ð32Þ
the contact plane is more complicated. It can be perpendicular to the A rel A
line connecting the closest points of two particles, or the line connecting
K tb IΨ Ψ C tb IΨ Ψ
the nearest points of a particle and triangle, or the line connecting two MΨ
b ¼ θrel þ ωrel ð33Þ
A A
points with the maximum overlap distance [72–74]. In this study, the
particles are treated as a polyhedron (3-D) body shape to represent K tb IΘ Θ Cn IΘ
the realistic particle modeling and behavior, recommended by several M Θb ¼ θ þ b ωΘrel ð34Þ
A rel A
investigators [75–78].
A polyhedron particle geometry, which consists of many corners, where Mnb, MΨ Θ
b , and Mb are the momentum components related to the
edges, and faces (in 3D), is treated in the ROCKY® DEM software as a hypothetical bond around axes corresponding to the orthogonal direc-
flexible particle. Each polyhedron is subdivided into tetrahedron ele- tions n, Ψ, and Θ, respectively, θnrel, θΨ Θ
rel, and θrel are the relative angular
ments, which are bonded to a neighboring element through a triangular displacements between the bonded elements, ωnrel, ωΨ Θ
rel, and ωrel are

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M.A. El-Emam, L. Zhou, W. Shi et al. Powder Technology 385 (2021) 357–374

Table 3
PM parameter values in the simulation.

Property Unit Seeds Leaves

Particle Shape – Sphero-Polyhedron Custom polyhedron

Dimensions mm 11.64 (Equivelant diameter) [Aspect ratios 0.75, 1.6] 30 × 15 × 0.05
Density Kg m−3 831 500
Velocity m/s 30 30
Number of particles – 500 2500
Coeffecient of friction – 0.3 0.3
Coefficient of restitution – 0.9 0.8
Rolling resistance – 0.3 0.3
Poisson's ratio – 0.25 0.25
Young's modulus GPa 5 1
100 (Wall boundary)

the relative angular velocities between the bonded elements, In, IΨ, and
IΘ are moments of inertia of the rectangular face associated with the
virtual bond.
4.4. DEM simulation
Perfectly 9 runs of one-way CFD–DEM coupling simulations were
carried out as one run for each fluid flow characteristics case. In each
run, the PM is normally introduced to the cyclone's inlets with the air
velocity of 30 ms−1, where the PM ratio of seeds and leaves is fixed to
be 500: 2500 particles, respectively. During the simulation, the feed
solids concentration is approximately (1.02 Kgair/Kgparticle) according
to the particles' physical properties, where the number of particles in-
troduced to the cyclone inlet is 1500 per second.
Before starting the simulations, the total simulation time was chosen
6 s. The PM is continuously fed into the cyclone inlet until 2 s of the sim-
ulation time, while the airflow was continuously fed until the end of
simulation time. The PM interactions are taken into account where
their properties are summarized in Table. 3. Under these conditions,
the computation operations consumed approximately 48 to 56 h per
one run depending on the cyclone geometry. The seeds are assumed
to be trapped by the bottom of the cyclone (product). However, the
leaves are predicted to escape through the vortex finder tube (reject).
According to Rocky®’s software technical manual recommendation
[40], to speed up the processing time, Young's modulus of the wall
boundary can be assumed 100 GPa without any noticeable effect on
the simulation result [64,82–86].
used to evaluate the cyclone performance: separation efficiency,
cleaning efficiency, and cyclone effectiveness. The cyclone separation ef-
ficiency can be referred to as the number of seeds collected, while the
cleaning efficiency represents the quality of collecting these seeds with-
out any undesired materials [87–89]. The effectiveness provides how ef-
fectively the cyclone process runs and tracks the improvements in the
separation process over time.
The number of seeds and leaves introduced to the cyclone inlet was
set, and the amount of each PM type that comes out from the outlets can
be counted to estimate the cyclone performance parameters. So, the
separation efficiency (Eq. 35) can be calculated through the seeds num-
ber inter the cyclone inlet (feed) comparing to the number of seeds ob-
tained in the outlet (product) [90–92]. At the same time, the cleaning
efficiency (Eq. 36) can be calculated through the seed's ratio and the
total amount of particles in the outlet (product) [93,94]. On the other
hand, the cyclone effectiveness (Eq. 37) is calculating by the separation
efficiency and the number of leaves escaped through the reject portion.
Seeds number in product
ηs ¼ ⨯100 ð35Þ
Seeds number in feed
Seeds number in product
ηc ¼ ⨯100
Seeds number in product þ Leaves number in the domain
ð36Þ
ηc  Leaves separated ratio ðreject Þ
ηeff ¼ ð37Þ
100

5. Measurements Where ηeff, ηs, ηc are the cyclone effectiveness, separation efficiency,
and cleaning efficiency %, respectively.
The capacity of the cyclone to collect the PM is measured by its per-
formance. Hence, it can be defined as the fraction of the particle inlet 6. Results and discussion
flow separated in the cyclone. In this study, three parameters were
6.1. Validation and methodology

The simulation of the designed cyclone is first validated with the

available experimental data before the simulation methodology can be
applied to standard cyclones. Tests of our previous study on the harvest-
ing jojoba seeds machine [3] have been conducted and used to validate
the simulation methodology [95]. Note that, In the experiment, the air-
flow was generated and introduced to the cyclone inlet through a
blower mounted on the cyclone's top. However, during the simulations,
the blower was removed, and only the effect of its flow was set to save
the computational power. However, the present simulations were not
carried out under the same conditions as the experiment, a good agree-
ment between the experimental data and simulated results on the cy-
clone performance, as can be seen in Fig. 9. In the experiment, the air
velocity in the designed cyclone was generated from an impeller
Fig. 9. Comparison between simulation data and the experimental result of the designed mounted on the cyclone's top portion. However, during the simulations,
cyclone. the impeller was removed, and only the effect of its flow was set.

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M.A. El-Emam, L. Zhou, W. Shi et al. Powder Technology 385 (2021) 357–374

It can be noticed that the results diverged by a small average value of

Fig. 10. Air velocity distribution (left) with streamlines of airflow (right) inside the
designed cyclone separator at an inlet velocity of 30 m/s.
1.26% for the separation efficiency and 1.94% for the cleaning efficiency.
Because the cyclone effectiveness calculation depended on the separa-
tion and cleaning efficiencies, its value decreased by 5%. This small devia-
tion in the simulation result is due to the used assumptions when
constructing and simulating the geometrical model. Besides, the simula-
tion and the experiment were not conducted under the same conditions.
Furthermore, to validate the simulations methodology, the workflow,
the results, and the recommendations of the one-way coupling simulation
of the cyclone separators [95], the pneumatic separation device of sugar-
cane bagasse [61,62], the mixing tee, and wind shifter devices [38] were
used and followed. These devices are mainly used in the industrial process
to separate different particles that differ in shape and geometry. According
to the particle movement inside the designed cyclone, as shown in the fig-
ures mentioned in the result section, the seeds can reach their macroscop-
ically steady state at the bottom of the conic part after 2 s of simulation
time. This result is confidently consistent with the literature [26,96] and
can be captured by the current numerical model. There is not much litera-
ture that studies the true shape modeling of the bioparticles in cyclones to
add more validation that make this simulation research unique and novel.
Regarding the comparison between the simulation and experimental re-
sults of the designed cyclone, it can be confirmed that the present simula-
tion methodology adopted and predict the outcomes of other cyclones'

Fig. 11. Air velocity profiles for the five investigated cyclones; a) designed, b)1D2D, c) 2D2D, d) 1D3D, e) 1D3D/w2D2D.

Fig. 12. Realization of air velocity profiles of the standard cyclones after modifying the seed's outlet boundary condition; a)1D2D, b) 2D2D, c) 1D3D, d) 1D3D/w2D2D.

366
M.A. El-Emam, L. Zhou, W. Shi et al.
Fig. 13. Realizations of the particle's trajectories at different simulation time, a) Designed, b)1D2D, c) 2D2D, d) 1D3D, e) 1D3D/w2D2D.
performance with confidence. Also, leading to a better understanding of
which design of the gas cyclone separator can be considered to get higher
performance for separating and cleaning jojoba seeds with higher effec-
tiveness, as discussed in the following sections.
6.2. Continuous phase predictions
Cyclone separators have a complex velocity profile, because of the
high turbulence and intense swirls, particularly at high inlet gas veloci-
ties. It is important to note that the simulation results investigated in
this study assessed in terms of the average velocities and the velocity
fluctuation levels through the cyclone boundaries. Accurate prediction
of velocity fluctuation levels is needed to get the correct result of the
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Powder Technology 385 (2021) 357–374
separation performance and show the rotational characteristics of the
fluid flow. The velocity profile describes the characteristic flow structure
known as the Rankine vortex type [31,32,97]. This vortical structure is
standard for the flow inside the reverse flow cyclone separators, as
shown in Fig.10. It consists of an outer free vortex and a forced vortex
at the center. The flow near cyclone walls is directed to force the
heavy PM to the seed's outlet. At the conic section part, the fluid flow di-
rection is reversed in the central region upwards, directed through the
vortex finder towards the cyclone outflow.
Starting the CFD simulations, it was defined as the air velocity profile
passing through the investigated cyclones. The chosen inlet air velocity
was approximate 30 ms−1, according to previous literature recommenda-
tions [3,98]. Since the pressure inlet is set to the seed's outlet boundary,
M.A. El-Emam, L. Zhou, W. Shi et al.
Fig. 14. Realizations of particle trajectories at different simulation times according to the boundary modifying case, a)1D2D, b) 2D2D, c) 1D3D, d) 1D3D/w2D2D.
the velocity profiles predicted of the investigated cyclones can be tabulated
in Fig. 11. A noticeable trend is that the high-velocity value of the inner flow
structures recorded at the beginning of the vortex finder.
At the same time, the minimum velocity can be measured in the
conical section. In the lower region of the conic part (seed's outlet
portion), the air velocity in the standard cyclones is still high over
the designed cyclone. This phenomenon will negatively affect
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Powder Technology 385 (2021) 357–374
collecting seeds at the bottom of cyclones, which indicates that the
seeds will be suspended in the conical section and will not come
out from the cyclone. This phenomenon occurred because of the
small diameter geometry, especially in the 2D2D cyclone of
the seed's outlet comparing to other geometries. In contrast, the de-
signed cyclone recorded a suitable velocity to collect the seeds at the
cyclone's bottom section.
M.A. El-Emam, L. Zhou, W. Shi et al.
Under these observations, there was a need and urgency to make a
significant change on the seed's outlet boundary conditions of the stan-
dard cyclones to let the seeds collecting and gathering at its outlet por-
tion. Consequently, the seed's outlet boundary condition in the standard
cyclones was changed from pressure inlet to velocity-in of 15 ms−1,
which will be the same as the designed cyclone, as shown in Fig. 12. It
notices the changes in the velocity distribution in the vortex finder
and the conical section that may affect the PM separation and its trajec-
tory behavior. The PM behavior, according to this modification, will be
discussed in detail in the next sections.
6.3. Particulate matter phase behavior
Theoretically, the PM separation can be viewed as a competition be-
tween two principal forces. First is the centrifugal force that brings the
relatively heavy PM (seeds) near the cyclone wall. Second is the turbu-
lent dispersion force that spreads light PM (leaves) over the cyclone vol-
ume giving it the chance to escape through the vortex finder. As shown
in Figs. 13 and 14, the cyclone separator geometry accompanied by ve-
locity profile distribution can significantly affect the particle movement
and path-lines, reflecting on the performance. These data are matched
with the previous literature [99–101]. Fig. 13 shows a snapshot of the
PM trajectory and behavior inside the investigated cyclones at a differ-
ent time of the simulation process.
According to the second 2 of the simulation time, as shown in Fig. 13,
where the feeding of the PM cutoff, the designed cyclone shows an ex-
cellent result for collecting seeds at the bottom of the conic part in
which the seeds reached their macroscopically steady state. This ob-
tained result is agreed with a previous study [26]. Simultaneously, a
considered number of separated leaves concentrates on the top of the
cylindrical section. On the other hand, the 1D2D cyclone displays good
behavior for separating leaves in a short simulating time that most of
them already escaped away from the vortex finder. It can notice that
the PM has a normal distribution in the domains of the investigated cy-
clones regarding the velocity profile distribution indicated in the CFD
result. Thus, most of the PM accumulates in the conic section waiting
for the inner vortex to change the direction upward the vortex finder
to encourage leaves separating from the stream, then the seeds pushed
downward the outlet.
During the simulation, in the second 4, as shown in Fig. 13, only the
designed cyclone has a considerable number of separated seeds that
reach the steady-state flow at the seed's outlet. While other standard
design cyclones, the collected seeds are still in the cyclone's domain
above the seed's outlet level. However, the 1D2D cyclone is the best ef-
ficient cyclone for separating the seeds from the leaves, a few seeds lost
and escaping through the vortex finder. This phenomenon happened
because of the vortex finder dimension design that permits a large
Fig. 15. Number of separated seeds during the simulation time.
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Powder Technology 385 (2021) 357–374
number of PM to escape fast. At this level, the PM in other cyclones is
still gathered in the conic part and needs more simulating time to
reach the separation.
Finally, in the second 6, when the simulation time ended, the
number of leaves remained inside the investigated cyclones, and
the number of collected seeds should be considered. These estima-
tions will affect cyclones' performance, as can be discussed in the
next section. It can be observed that the seeds in the standard cy-
clones are rested in the conic section and did not reach the bottom.
This phenomenon appeared because of the high value of velocity dis-
tributing profiles at the bottom of the conic part, which was recorded
over 35 ms−1. This velocity is regarded as higher than the seed's ter-
minal velocity. Whereas in the designed cyclone, the seeds are al-
ready collected in the right outlet way. Under these operating
conditions, the 1D3D/w2D2D cyclone shows an intense vortex of
PM, which affects the separating process comparing to the 1D3D
and 2D2D cyclones. Although the 1D3D inlet geometry has a very
narrow width that leads to choking when introducing the granular
flow compared to 1D3D/w2D2D [15,16], it gives a good behavior
for PM separation. This result means that the inlet dimension has a
significant effect on the cyclone performance.
On the other hand, the seed's outlet boundary condition was modi-
fied to a velocity inlet of 15 ms−1 to let the seeds rest on their outlet
level. Fig. 14 represents a simple realization during simulations to assess
the PM behave and to estimate the performance of the standard cyclone.
Comparing the simulations after modifying the seed's outlet operating
condition at the second 2 of the simulation time, the seeds on the cy-
clones 1D3D/w2D2D and 1D2D reached their macroscopically steady
state at the bottom region. In comparison, the 2D2D and the 1D3D cy-
clones have a normal PM distribution along with the domain.
Furthermore, in the second 4 of the simulation time, the 1D2D cy-
clone gives a complete behavior for separation performance that all
the leaves already escaped out from the cyclone, and the seeds accu-
mulate at the bottom level of the conic section. At the ending of
simulation time, cyclones 1D3D and 1D3D/w2D2D need much more
time to complete the PM separation that a considerable amount of
seeds and leaves are already in the domain. While in the 2D2D cy-
clone design, the PM trend accumulates in the conic section, which
is believed to be caused by chaotic velocity distribution in this region.
This phenomenon affects the PM interaction forces and prevents the
seeds from falling downward.
6.4. Cyclone performance
In this investigation, three main parameters that can evaluate the cy-
clone performance include separation efficiency, cleaning efficiency,
Fig. 16. Number of collected seeds during the simulation time after modifying the
operating conditions of the seed's outlet.
M.A. El-Emam, L. Zhou, W. Shi et al.
Fig. 17. Number of separated leaves during the simulation time.
Fig. 18. Number of separated leaves during the simulation time after modifying the
operating conditions of the seed's outlet.
and effectiveness. The total PM number introducing to the cyclone inlet
was considered to assess these guidelines within the simulation. Conse-
quently, the number of collected seeds at the bottom of the conic section
and the number of leaves that escaped from the vortex finder at the top
portion of the cyclone were counted. While in the experimental work,
Fig. 19. Performance comparison of the investigated cyclones.
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Powder Technology 385 (2021) 357–374
PM mass loading was used. The particle mass loading is converted to
numbers of PM depending on its physical properties, such as density
and the weight of one thousand particles, to match the performance cal-
culations between the simulation and the experimental data. Note that,
at the end of the simulation time, the separated seeds remain inside the
cyclone domain and not collected at the bottom was neglected during
accounting.
As mentioned before, the number of seeds introduced to the inlet of
cyclones during the simulation process was 500 seed. During simulating
cases, Figs. 15 and 16 were plotted to represent the number of separated
and collected seeds, respectively. Before modifying the seed's outlet op-
erating condition, the graphs show that the total numbers of separated
seeds were 464, 449, 392, 343 in the 1D2D, 2D2D, 1D3D, and 1D3D/
w2D2D cyclones, respectively. In contrast, the number of collected
seeds after modifying the seed's outlet operating condition in the
1D2D cyclone was lightly increased by 1.7%. In contrast, 1D3D and
1D3D/w2D2D cyclones were decreased by 2.5% and 7.3%, respectively.
Also, the 2D2D cyclone seriously recorded the worst behavior against
the boundary modification where the separated seeds were nil. The
curve tendency of the 1D2D cyclone reached the stable state at the sim-
ulation time of 3.5 s, where the seeds are separated. While the other cy-
clones still have the same behave of direct proportional relationship
with the time. According to these results, more simulation time and
more intensive power are needed to complete the seeds separation
process.
Comparing the 1D2D cyclone before and after modifying the seed's
outlet operating condition, the number of collected seeds in the 1D2D
cyclone is higher by 8.2%. However, a considerable amount of 28 seeds
particle is already escaped through the vortex finder. Over time, starting
from the first second of the simulation time, the 1D2D cyclone gives the
initially collected seed at the bottom of the conic portion while others
beginning from the second 2. This distribution of seeds has only one
meaning that the cyclone vortex finder dimensions significantly affect
the cyclone performance more than changing another cyclone dimen-
sion, as mentioned by Elsayed and Lacor [102,103].
On the other hand, the number of leaves that escaped through the
vortex finder, which represents the seeds separation quality, is investi-
gated. Herein, 2500 leaves particles were entered into the cyclones inlet
and simulated. Figs. 17 and 18 illustrate the comparison of the separated
leaves number before and after modifying the seed's outlet operating
condition in conjunction with the simulation time. It was observed
that the curve tendency of the 1D2D cyclone has a constant function
that starts approximately from 2.2 s of the simulation time, which
means all of the leaves already escaped from the domain. According to
the designed cyclone result, about 1479 leaves particle was escaped
out. However, many leaves are separated, but it is still inside the cyclone
at the top portion of the barrel. This observation happened because of
M.A. El-Emam, L. Zhou, W. Shi et al.
Fig. 20. Performance comparison of the standard cyclones after modifying the operating conditions of the seed's outlet.
the inlet portion, which is designed at 70 mm below the top surface of
the cyclone.
From the simulation result before modifying the seed's outlet oper-
ating condition, it can be deriving that the number of separated leaves
is reached 2406, 2367, and 1916 in the 2D2D cyclone designs followed
by 1D3D and 1D3D/w2D2D cyclones, respectively. After modifying
the seed's outlet operating condition, the 1D2D cyclone curve still has
the same tendency. In contrast, the number of separated seeds in the
2D2D, 1D3D, 1D3D/w2D2D cyclones are severely decreased by 51%,
12%, and 50%, respectively. In these cases, the boundary modification
did not succeed in optimizing these cyclones' performance. The 1D2D
cyclone design shows the best and high-performance trend to deal
with the investigated PM under these obtained data.
In conjunction with the numbers of PM separated, which were ob-
tained by simulations and Eqns. 35, 36, and 37, mentioned in the previ-
ous section, it is easy to calculate and investigate cyclone performance.
Firstly, note that in the simulation case, before modified the boundary
condition, as shown in Fig. 19, the separating efficiency of the seeds in
the standard cyclones is not real. That is because the separated seeds
particle did not collect at the bottom of the conic part, but this result
is useful for evaluating the cyclonic process. At this level, it was ob-
served that the 1D2D cyclone has the best performance trend that the
Fig. 21. Animation videos of the PM simulation before (left) and after (right) the seed's outlet boundary condition modification.
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separating and cleaning efficiencies reached 92.8 and 100%, respec-
tively, which makes the cyclone effectiveness very high. While in the
designed cyclone, the separating efficiency is recorded a reasonable
value of 86.6%, while the cleaning efficiency recorded 67.97%. The de-
cline of this cyclone performance is because the number of leaves that
escaped from the vortex finder was only considered during the calcula-
tion. However, under this operating condition, the designed cyclone is
regarded as the best one for the real separation of jojoba seeds from
the leaves because it allows the seeds to rest at the bottom of the
conic part.
After modifying the operating condition to let the seeds particle col-
lect and rest at the standard cyclones' bottom level, a new comparison
of the standard cyclone performances is drawn in Fig. 20. It was ob-
served that the 1D2D cyclone still has the best performance, but the sep-
aration efficiency and effectiveness are increased by 1.7%. At this level,
the percent of seeds loss that is escaped with the leaves is reached
5.6%. In contrast, the 1D3D and the 1D3D/w2D2D recorded a bad perfor-
mance that the separating efficiency decreased by 2.5 and 7.3%. Also, the
cleaning efficiency decreased by 53.8 and 35.6%, which severely affected
the effectiveness.
Moreover, the 2D2D cyclone shows the worst performance behavior
that the separating and the cleaning efficiencies are almost equal to
M.A. El-Emam, L. Zhou, W. Shi et al.
zero. This obtained performance is due to the air velocity distribution in-
side the cyclone compared to the other cyclones, as shown in Fig. 12. In
detail, the value of the velocity distribution in the vortex finder at the
top of the cyclone is not high enough to allow the leaves to be sucked
and escaped outside the cyclone. Furthermore, the length of the barrel
part is much taller than other cyclones, which makes the particles
have more swirls inside the cyclone. This phenomenon is preventing
the leaves from reversing their directions to move upward the vortex
finder. So, regarding these aspects, the performance of the 2D2D cyclone
is almost equal to zero.
For a more confident and better overview of the performance of the
investigated cyclones and the characteristics of the PM behavior, the PM
animation was shown in Fig. 21.
7. Conclusion and outlook
In this study, coupling the strength of the CFD-DEM approach has
been investigated to predict gas cyclone performance. A one-way cou-
pling approach simulates the multiphase flow of the granular matter
mixed with continuum air discharge. The particulate matter of jojoba
seeds and their leaves with their true shape was modeled and used.
Three main parameters were considered: separating efficiency, cleaning
efficiency, and effectiveness to estimate the cyclone performance. At
first, a comparison between the designed cyclone modeling and its ex-
perimental results was carried out to validate the simulation methodol-
ogy and data. Follow that, four types of standard cyclones, namely
1D2D, 2D2D, 1D3D, and 1D3D/w2D2D, were modeled. The D's refers
to the cyclone diameter, and the numbers before each D's relate to the
length of the cylindrical and conical sections, respectively. For instance,
the D's in the 2D2D cyclone means that it has cylindrical and conical
lengths of two times the cyclone diameter. The simulation strategy is
based on two primary goals. The first is to compare the performance
of the standard cyclone with the designed one. Second, modify the op-
eration condition of the seed's outlet duct of the standard cyclones to
evaluate their performance.
Before modifying the seed's outlet boundary condition, it can be con-
cluded that all the performance results have no meaning because the
seeds did not rest at the bottom of the cyclones. However, the perfor-
mance of the designed cyclone is considered low; it is regarded as the
best and practical design because of the separated seeds collected and
rest at the bottom of the conic part. After modifying the seed's outlet
boundary condition, however, the 1D2D cyclone has the best perfor-
mance trend, and the separating and effectiveness increased by 1.7%,
the percent of seeds loss that is escaped with the leaves is reached
5.6%. In contrast, the performance of the 1D3D and 1D3D/w2D2D cy-
clones is decreased; also, the 2D2D cyclone shows the worst perfor-
mance behavior that the separating and the cleaning efficiencies are
almost equal to zero.
Although the performance of the 1D2D cyclone design after modify-
ing the seed's outlet operating condition was acceptable and higher
than the designed one, where no research reached this cyclone perfor-
mance in the previous studies at this level of PM, there will be a trend
to do more geometry modifications and optimizations to reduce the
loss of the seed. This simulation study gives an overview of the jojoba
seeds and leaves behavior during the separation process, which should
aid the jojoba harvesting industry in meeting current and future partic-
ulate separation control requirements.
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://doi.
org/10.1016/j.powtec.2021.03.006.
Credit author statement
All persons who meet authorship criteria are listed as authors, and
all authors certify that they have participated sufficiently in the work
to take public responsibility for the content, including participation in
the concept, design, analysis, writing, or revision of the manuscript.
372
Powder Technology 385 (2021) 357–374
Furthermore, each author certifies that this material or similar material
has not been and will not be submitted to or published in any other pub-
lication before it submitted in the Powder Technology Journal.
Authorship contributions
Conceptualization, Methodology and Design of study: Mahmoud A.
El-Emam, Ling Zhou, and Chen Han.
Writing- Reviewing and Editing: Mahmoud A. El-Emam and
Ling Zhou.
Supervision: Ling Zhou and Weidong Shi.
Software, Simulation, and Validation: Mahmoud A. El-Emam and
Chen Han.
Acknowledgments and funding
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Founda-
tion of China (Grant Nos. 52079058), National Key Research and Devel-
opment Project (Grant No. 2020YFC1512404), Nature Science
Foundation for Excellent Young Scholars of Jiangsu Province (Grant
No. BK20190101), Six Talent Peaks Project in Jiangsu Province (Grant
No. KTHY-030).
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors would like to declare that there is no conflict of interest
exists in the submission of this manuscript, and the manuscript is ap-
proved by all authors for publication. We also declare that they have
no known competing for financial interests or personal relationships
that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Also, we would like to declare one behalf of our co-authors that the
work described was original research that has not been published pre-
viously, and not under consideration for publication elsewhere, in
whole or in part. All the authors listed in the manuscript have approved
the manuscript that is enclosed.
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