CFD investigation of body geometry effects on oil droplet-gas cyclone performance
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Farzad Parvaz
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Nihan Uygur Babaoğlu
Abstract
This study simulated gas flow in oil droplet-gas cyclones using the Reynolds stress turbulent model incorporated into the CFD code Ansys-Fluent. Five cyclone body designs, namely, cylindrical, square, octagonal, hexagonal, and inverted cone, were analyzed to determine their effect on gas flow patterns. The inverted cone geometry had a greater maximum tangential velocity, roughly 1.6 times the inlet gas velocity. In contrast, the square geometry had the lowest maximum axial velocity of 0.36 times the inlet velocity. The inverted cone cyclone showed the highest number of floating droplets, whereas the square cyclone yielded the least. Overall, the square shapes showed better performance than other shapes. The developed computational model accurately estimated droplet behavior, with its predictions closely matching the experimental data. Therefore, it is well-suited for simulating oil droplet motions in gas cyclones using CFD.
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Research ethics: Not applicable.
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Informed consent: Not applicable.
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Author contributions: All authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this manuscript and approved its submission.
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Use of Large Language Models, AI and Machine Learning Tools: None declared.
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Conflict of interest: The authors state no conflict of interest.
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Research funding: None declared.
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Data availability: Not applicable.
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Supplementary Material
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