In many industries, removing dust particles from gas streams is a critical job, and cyclone separators are the workhorse for this task. However, traditional cylindrical designs can suffer from high turbulence, which reduces their efficiency. To solve this, a new design has been developed: the Square Cyclone Separator with a Laminarizer. This innovative device uses a space-saving square body and, most importantly, includes a special set of tubes called a laminarizer to calm the incoming flow. A Square Cyclone Separator With Laminarizer CFD simulation is the only way to truly understand and prove the benefits of this design. This report details the analysis, guided by the reference paper “Improving efficiency of conventional and square cyclones using different configurations of the laminarizer” [1].

• Reference [1]: Fatahian, Hossein, Esmaeel Fatahian, and Majid Eshagh Nimvari. “Improving efficiency of conventional and square cyclones using different configurations of the laminarizer.” Powder technology339 (2018): 232-243.

Figure 1: The geometry of the laminarizers used in the Square Cyclone CFD model [1].

Simulation Process: Modeling the Laminarizer Fluent Simulation

The first step was to build the 3D model of the Square Cyclone fluent geometry. This model includes the main square body and two different laminarizers: an inlet laminarizer with 3×5 hollow tubes and a vortex finder laminarizer with seven vertical tubes. After creating the geometry, the model was divided into 2,540,574 tetrahedral cells to create a high-quality mesh for the ANSYS Fluent solver.

Because this problem involves solid particles moving within a gas, the Discrete Phase Model (DPM) was used. This is a Cyclone DPM-CFD approach where the air is the continuous phase and the dust particles are the discrete phase. Since the micron-sized particles are very small, a one-way DPM coupling is a good assumption, meaning the particles are carried by the flow but don’t significantly affect the air’s motion. To make the particle behavior more realistic, the discrete-random-walk model was enabled to account for turbulent dispersion.

Figure 2: The geometry of the conventional cyclone with a laminarizer, shown for comparison from the reference study [1]

Post-processing

The simulation results provide a clear and fully substantiated story of how this new design works, beginning with how it controls the airflow. The entire separation process is driven by a powerful vortex, but in this device, the flow is carefully conditioned before the vortex even forms. This is the main “cause” of the improved performance. The velocity contour in Figure 3 shows a powerful central vortex with speeds up to 18.15 m/s. However, the key innovation is the Laminarizer CFD model, which shows the 3×5 tubes at the inlet forcing the turbulent incoming gas into organized, parallel streams. This prevents chaotic mixing at the entrance and creates a much more stable and predictable primary vortex. The square shape of the body further helps by creating defined corner flow patterns, which work together with the main vortex to create a highly structured flow field that is ready to separate particles efficiently.

Figure 3: Particle residence time and velocity paths from the Square Cyclone DPM-CFD simulation, showing rapid separation.

This carefully conditioned flow field has a direct and powerful “effect” on the dust particles, which is tracked by the Square Cyclone Separator With Laminarizer Fluent DPM model. The particle trajectories in Figure 3 show that as soon as the particles enter, they are immediately caught in the strong, organized spiral flow. The centrifugal force generated by this vortex is immense, and it throws the particles outward against the walls. The residence time data shows that most particles are separated and collected in less than 0.5 seconds. This is extremely fast and efficient. This speed is a direct result of the laminarizer preventing wasted energy on turbulence, allowing the vortex to do its job immediately. Furthermore, the secondary laminarizer at the vortex finder acts as a final guard, preventing any stray particles from getting caught in the exiting air stream (a problem called short-circuiting). The most significant achievement of this CFD analysis is the clear demonstration of how the inlet laminarizer conditions the flow to create a highly stable vortex, which in turn causes rapid and efficient particle separation, validated by the short particle residence times.