CFD investigation of body geometry effects on oil droplet-gas cyclone performance

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.