An experimental and numerical study of turbulent swirling flow in gas cyclones

Citation
Aj. Hoekstra et al., An experimental and numerical study of turbulent swirling flow in gas cyclones, CHEM ENG SC, 54(13-14), 1999, pp. 2055-2065
Citations number
16
Categorie Soggetti
Chemical Engineering
Journal title
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING SCIENCE
ISSN journal
00092509 → ACNP
Volume
54
Issue
13-14
Year of publication
1999
Pages
2055 - 2065
Database
ISI
SICI code
0009-2509(199907)54:13-14<2055:AEANSO>2.0.ZU;2-Z
Abstract
Experimental results on the turbulent, strongly swirling flow field in a re verse flow gas cyclone separator are presented, and used to evaluate the pe rformance of three turbulence closure models Mean and fluctuating velocity components were measured for gas cyclones with different geometric swirl nu mbers by means of laser-Doppler velocimetry. The experimental data show the strong effect of the geometric swirl number on mean flow characteristics, in particular with respect to vortex core size and the magnitude of the max imum tangential velocity. It is shown that the forced vortex region of the flow is dominated by the so-called precessing vortex core. Numerical calcul ation of the cyclonic flow shows that turbulence models based on the eddy-v iscosity approach fail to predict the combined vortex observed experimental ly. Predictions with the Reynolds stress transport model are in reasonable agreement with measured profiles for all three swirl numbers, though the tu rbulent normal stresses are generally overpredicted. (C) 1999 Elsevier Scie nce Ltd. All rights reserved.