Coarse-grained CFD-DEM study of gas-solid flow in gas cyclone

Kaiwei Chu, Yanxing Chen, Li Ji, Zongqing Zhou, Aibing Yu, Jiang Chen

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer-review

33 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Gas cyclones are common device in various industries to separate solid particles and/or droplets from gas streams. Nonetheless, the mathematical modelling of gas cyclone has been very challenging since huge number of multi-sized particles are involved in the system. In this work, a numerical study of the gas–solid flow in a gas cyclone with wide range of particle size distribution (from 1 to 200 µm) is carried out by developing a coarse-grained combined Discrete Element Method (DEM) and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model. It shows that the coarse-grained CFD-DEM model is able to capture the typical flow features in a gas cyclone including the solid strands and dust ceiling phenomena. It also shows that modelling of van der Waals force is critical for the prediction of separation efficiency in gas cyclone especially for fine particles. Furthermore, it is tried to explain how the dust ceiling is formed.

Original languageEnglish
Article number117906
Number of pages17
JournalChemical Engineering Science
Volume260
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 12 Oct 2022

Keywords

  • Coarse-grained
  • Computational Fluid Dynamics
  • Discrete Element Method
  • Dust ceiling
  • Gas cyclone separator

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