Abstract

This paper presents the modeling approaches and results of numerical investigations into particle separation in a production-scale industrial centrifugal air separator. The gaseous phase was modeled using an Eulerian formulation, while the particle phase was modeled using a Lagrangian particle tracking approach. Two-way coupling between continuous and disperse phase was included and turbulence modeled using the realizable k-ε model. The resulting comprehensive system model provides correct predictions of the power consumption and of pressure losses in the device over the full operation range, and proved ability of accurately predicting the size-dependent particle separation efficiencies down to nominal particle sizes of 2 μm.