Modelagem da eficiência de coleta em ciclones utilizando a fluidodinâmica computacional

Abstract

Cyclones are used to separate suspended particles from gas streams. The analysis of flow inside the cyclone is complex due to the large number of parameters and operating variables that influence the dynamics of the system. Due to its versatility of use and its robustness, results in computational fluid dynamic are an important alternative often used to study the dynamics of flow in the cyclone. In the literature, several works make use of computational fluid dynamics in order to study the pressure drop of cyclones. However, the works about the efficiency of collection are fewer. For the cyclone, computational fluid dynamics allows an accurately simulation of the collection efficiency of particles with diameter greater than 5 µm; but for particles with smaller diameters the simulated results diverge from experimental values. In this work, Stairmand s cyclone was numerically simulated with injected particles with diameters from 1 to 5 µm. The results were verified using available experimental data reported in the literature. The experimental data taken from literature belong to Zhao and Shen Kang (2004) and Zhao (2005). The simulation mesh was analyzed before and after the simulations. The turbulence models used in the simulation of flow in the cyclone were: Reynolds Stress Model (RSM) and Large Eddy Simulation (LES). The dispersed phase was simulated considering one and two way couplings. The equation of motion of the particles was integrated using the integration schemes: implicit, analytic, trapezoidal, and Runge-Kutta. The results showed that the methodology was adequate to reproduce the behavior of the flow in the cyclone. The error percentages obtained in pressure drop were under 5% and the average collection efficiency was reproduced with good accuracy for diameters of 3, 4 and 5 µm.