Study on the effect of a new type of deswirler on the flow field and performance of a cyclone separator

Cyclone separators have a wide range of applications in industry. Recovery of the pressure drop in the vortex finder was achieved by installing a deswirler, which also reduces efficiency to a certain extent. The current work is focused on the optimization of the flow field in the vortex finder, and a new hollow-type deswirler was proposed. The airflow and particle flow were simulated by using the Reynolds Stress Model (RSM) and the Discrete Phase Model (DPM), and performance tests were conducted on different structures. The results show that, the efficiency of the separator is increased and the pressure drop is decreased after the hollow-type deswirler is installed in the vortex finder. Compared with a separator equipped with a traditional deswirler, the efficiency can be increased by 0.94% by adding a hollow-type deswirler. The gas at the center of the hollow-type deswirler backflows, increasing the rotational kinetic energy in the vortex finder. The separation capacity of the main separation zone is maintained while the pressure drop is reduced, and the back-mixing escape of particles is effectively reduced by lowering the vortex core swing and short-circuit flow. The results of this study can provide a reference for the performance enhancement design of cyclone separators.