Investigation of Cyclone Pressure Loss by a Coiled Tube Model

Abstract

Free vortex cyclones are used in various industrial fields because of their high performance, simple structure and low equipment investment.
It is very important to estimate a pressure loss of the cyclone to design a process.
Cyclone pressure loss has been studied from various viewpoints in the past. However, most studies left the effect of the centrifugal force out of consideration.
In this paper, an inner flow of a cyclone was visualized from the deposition pattern of tracer particles on the cyclone wall. Then, a coiled tube model was proposed to estimate the pressure loss of a cyclone, and its plausibility was tested through its comparison with experimental pressure loss.
It was found that a rotation number of the inner flow in a cyclone cylindrical part doesn't depend on cyclone inlet velocities. A coiled tube model was useful to estimate the pressure loss of the cyclone. To estimate a flow affected by a centrifugal force, it is more effective to think of it as a flow in a coiled tube rather than in a straight tube.