Numerical simulation of the asymmetric gas-phase flow field in a volute cyclone separator

The gas-phase flow field in a cyclone separator with a volute inlet is numerically simulated based upon the Reynolds stress model (RSM) on the platform of commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software, FLUENT 6.1. The asymmetric characteristics of the flow field are analyzed in this paper. The results indicate that the gas-phase flow field is slightly asymmetric in the tube and cone spaces, but remarkably asymmetric in the annular space. Meanwhile, it can be seen that the axial center of the gas flow vortex deviates from the geometric center of the cyclone. This swirling eccentricity results from the asymmetrical inlet structure and the instability of the swirling flow. The deviated distance, and direction varies with the axial position and the maximal deviated distance is approximately 0.07R. The offset of two centers makes the radial velocity of the gas-phase flow field have a remarkable asymmetrical profile. The asymmetric characteristics of the radial velocity distribution are first explained in this study. The above results are in fair agreement with the experimental data from the literature.