Artificial neural network-based modeling of pressure drop coefficient for cyclone separators

In order to build the complex relationships between cyclone pressure drop coefficient (PDC) and geometrical dimensions, representative artificial neural networks (ANNs), including back propagation neural network (BPNN), radial basic functions neural network (RBFNN) and generalized regression neural network (GANN), are developed and employed to model PDC for cyclone separators. The optimal parameters for ANNs are configured by a dynamically optimized search technique with cross-validation. According to predicted accuracy of PDC, performance of configured ANN models is compared and evaluated. It is found that, all ANN models can successfully produce the approximate results for training sample. Further, the RBFNN provides the higher generalization performance than the BPNN and GRNN as well as the conventional PDC models, with the mean squared error of 5.84 x 10(-4) and CPU time of 120.15 s. The result also demonstrates that ANN can offer an alternative technique to model cyclone pressure drop. (C) 2009 The Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.