Parametric analysis and optimization of gas-particle flow through axial cyclone separator: A numerical study

The separation of particles through an axial swirl tube cyclone separator is numerically investigated using Eulerian-Lagrangian approach by solving Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes equations with RNG K-epsilon model as turbulence closure and Discrete phase modeling (DPM) of particles. The four significant geometric parameters in an axial swirl tube cyclone separator for improving the performance are identified to be blade angle, blade length, blade-tube distance and number of blades. The impact of these parameters on the output parameters of a cyclone separator, is studied through numerical analysis with the open source CFD solver OpenFOAM. A one factor analysis is performed to understand the individual contributions of the parameters and a multiobjective optimisation is done using the Design of Experiments (DoE) approach. The blade length was found to be the most sensitive parameter whereas the blade tube distance had the least effect. Using statistical methods such as Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Multi Objective Genetic algorithm (MOGA), a set of Pareto optimum solutions are generated, with an effective trade off between the pressure drop and filtration efficiency. The configurations obtained after optimisation are validated with CFD simulations and found to be having a better overall performance as compared to the conventional configuration.