Swirling flows are among the most common and most complex in the process industry. Swirling flows appear in spray drying towers, burners, cyclone separators, and a wide variety of other process systems. The example below shows a CFD model of a cyclone separator. Air enters through a tangential inlet, generating a swirling flow that forces entrained solids radially outward. Solids drop out through the bottom of the separator while air exits through the top.
Results of the CFD analysis of the cyclone separator are shown below. Traces are shown for three particle sizes. The 1-micron particles escape with the exhaust air up the vortex funnel, while 10- and 100-micron particles fall out and are collected at the solids outlet at the bottom. This is in good agreement with test results which show that over 90% of 10-micron and larger particles are removed while less than 10% of 1-micron and smaller particles are removed.
