Impact of the Draft Plate on the Wall Erosion and Flow Field Stability of a Cyclone Separator

Cyclone separators are commonly employed in the mining, metallurgy and chemical industries due to their simple structure, easy maintenance and high recovery efficiency. However, with the wide application of cyclone separators, many problems have become exposed in their practical operation, restricting their development. Among these, wall erosion is becoming a significant problem. In this study, to resolve the problem of severe erosion on the walls, the Eulerian–Lagrangian framework was employed to investigate a cyclone separator with a draft plate at the inlet and to evaluate the effect of a draft plate with angles of 0°, 45° and 90° on the degree of erosion and the stabilization of flow fields. Moreover, after verifying the reliability of the numerical model via data from experiments, the characteristics of gas–solid flow were analyzed and the effects of the new structure on the degree of wear were investigated. The results demonstrated that unfavorable phenomena such as secondary flow and wall erosion generated during the operation could be mitigated by the draft plate. When the plate angle was 90°, the wall erosion was the lightest and the range of influence of the secondary flow was the smallest. When the plate angle was 45°, the comprehensive performance was the best, and there was a better balance between the energy loss and the degree of wall erosion. Therefore, the presence of the draft plate has a significant impact on the interaction of gas–solid phases in a cyclone separator.