A SIMPLIFIED MODEL TO PREDICT THE TOTAL EFFICIENCY OF GRAVITY SETTLERS AND CYCLONES

The total efficiency of gravity settlers and cyclones is usually calcu lated by summing the product of the grade efficiency and the weight fr action of particles over a series of particle size intervals. The accu racy of this method strongly depends on the number of the particle siz e intervals and the width of the individual intervals. Moreover, the d esign of these devices is based on specifying a required efficiency fo r a given size of particles. However, since these collectors are usual ly used for precleaning the dust-laden gas so as to reduce the dust lo ading before the gas enters a subsequent high-efficiency collector, on e needs to know what total efficiency must be achieved. Therefore, the present paper uses a simplified model to predict the total efficiency of these devices based on the assumption of a normal size distributio n. It is further shown that the equations developed assuming a normal size distribution can be extended for other particle size distribution s.