Powder Technology,

181

58 (1989) 181 - 185

Dust Collection Efficiency of a Straight-Through Cyclone - Effects of Duct

Length, Guide Vanes and. Nozzle Angle for Secondary Rotational Air Flow
T. AKIYAMA
Department

and T. MARUI
of Chemical Engineering,

Shizuoka University, Hamamatsu, 432 (Japan)

(Received April 28, 1988; in revised form January 30, 1989)

SUMMARY

This paper is concerned with an experimental investigation of the dust collection

efficiency of a straight-through cyclone. The
suction of dust-laden air into the cyclone is
induced by a secondary rotational air flow
from eight nozzles which are set on the duct
wall. This study is an extension of the
previous study, and deals with greater variations in duct size, nozzle angle, and the position of guide vanes. Studies were made also
on cut size, critical particle diameter, particle
size distribution and fractional efficiency.
INTRODUCTION

The cyclone separator is widely used as a

means of dust removal from gases in a variety
of engineering applications. Various kinds of
cyclones are in use depending on specific
requirements [ 1,2].
At present, cyclones are most commonly
used for the removal of dust from hightemperature gases. An increased need in
hot gas cleaning has prompted fresh interest
in cyclone design and development [ 31. In
general, cyclone designs fall into two groups:
the straight-through cyclone and the conventional reverse-flow cyclone. The advantage
of the straight-through cyclone over the
reverse-flow cyclone is that a large volume
of gas can be handled. The drawback is the
lower dust collection efficiency, which is
attributed to insufficient swirl flow in
practical operation. The temperature of
furnace flue gas is commonly in the range
1000 - 1200 K. To cope with the hot gas
in this temperature range, heat-resistant materials must be used, but this leads to an increase in construction and maintenance costs.
0032-5910/89/$3.50

Recently, we have introduced a novel type

of straight-through cyclone [4] which is
better suited to removal of dust from hot
furnace flue gases. The cyclone is equipped
with eight nozzles (12 mm ID) set on the
duct wall, through which secondary air flow
is introduced tangentially into the main
cylindrical duct. The roles of this secondary
rotational air flow are threefold. First, the
swirl flow is strengthened, securing high dust
collection efficiency. Second, suction of dustladen hot gas from the furnace will be induced, eliminating the use of a suction fan.
Last, the cyclone wall temperature is reduced:
the cool tangential air flow surrounds the hot
furnace flue gas, and it has been confirmed
from commercial-scale tests that the wall
temperature can be kept below 700 K even
when the flue gas is at 1000 - 1200 K. Thus,
this type of cyclone requires no precooling
of furnace flue gases, and reduces the material
problem so that no special heat resistant material is needed to construct the cyclone.
The previous study on dust collection
efficiency dealt with one duct size (0.555 m
long and 0.185 m in diameter) and one nozzle
angle, 25. The present experimental study
extends the range of duct size using greater
length, variations in the nozzle angle and also
a variation of the position of guide vanes. In
addition, studies were made on the cut size
d,, the critical particle diameter d,,, the particle size distribution of original and collected
dust f, and the fractional efficiency Aq. d,
stands for the particle size corresponding to
a fractional efficiency of 50%, d,, the size of
the smallest particle that will be separated
from the gas stream with 100% efficiency,
and A7 the collection efficiency for a given
particle size. This study will prove useful
for the design of the straight-through cyclone
@ Elsevier Sequoia/Print&d in The Netherlands

182

which uses secondary rotational

induce the suction of dust-laden

EXPERIMENTAL
PROCEDURES

air flow to
gas.

APPARATUS AND

The schematic diagram of the experimental

apparatus is shown in Fig. 1. Two duct
lengths, H = 0.555 and 1.12 m, with the
same diameter, D, = 0.185 m, were used for
the main duct. Here, the duct length H refers
to the distance between the nozzles and the
collector. The inlet duct was 0.90 m long
and 0.10 m in diameter. Four kinds of nozzle
angles, 8, = 15, 25, 35 and 45, were used
along with two collectors with different
annular widths S (see Fig. 1). Detailed arrangements of the nozzles are illustrated in
Fig. 2. Two types of guide vane assemblies,
0.1 m in diameter with vane angle 0, = 25,
and 0.185 m in diameter with eg = 45 were
used, both with eight vanes. The position of
the small guide vanes (0.1 m in diameter) is
shown in Fig. 1. Two kinds of setting of the
large guide vanes are illustrated in Fig. 3. A
vibratory feeder was used to provide dust
at the inlet of the inlet duct. The dust was

ssiJ-BlOWW

Valve-l
Valve-2
:i.l

MClnOllWt~

point

BagitIter

Vacuum

pump

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of experimental apparatus.

Ql

Ql

upstream

downstream

Fig. 3. Position of guide vanes.

instantly sucked into the duct, and was dispersed well by the high-speed air flow from
the nozzles combined with the guide vanes,
so that no additional device was needed to
disperse the dust. The dust concentration
in
the total air flow was kept at about 0.003
kg/m3 in most experiments.
However, no
appreciable change in dust collection efficiency was observed when the concentration
was varied between 0.001 and 0.020 kg/m3.
The physical properties of the dusts used
for the experiments are listed in Table 1. Fly
ash-5, fly ash-lo, andlicopodium
are standard
test dusts supplied from the Association of
Powder Process Industry and Engineering,
Japan. Full size distributions of fly ash-5 and
glass beads, determined by a sedimentation
method, will be shown later. The licopodium
is distributed in a narrow range, 20 - 45 pm.
The oversize distribution
of fly ash-10 (provided by the above Association) is listed in
Table 2. Dust was caught in the annular space
of the collector after being driven toward the

TABLE 1
Physical properties of dust

Fig. 2. Tangential ports for nozzle air flow.

Dust

Average
diameter
(pm)

True
density
(kg/m?

Bulk
density
(kg/m?

Licopodium
Glass beads
Fly ash-5
Fly ash-10

35.0
16.3
11.0
4.8

1050
2480
2173
2132

361
1300 - 1500
682
682

183
ioo

driving force for the suction of the dust-laden

air. This was to simulate the working condition: the gauge pressure within a furnace may
reach approximately
60 Pa, the corresponding
driving force of which is to be supplied by
the suction fan in this experiment. Note that
the suction fan is not required when the
present type of cyclone is applied for removal
of dust from hot furnace flue gases.
8g= 25
S/Ra=0.216

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

0

1.5

10

0.5
(3*/Q,

[ -1

Fig. 4. Effect of nozzle angle on dust collection

efficiency.

50 '
0

1.0

0.5

02/01

15

l-1

Fig. 5. Effect of nozzle angle and collector size on

dust collection efficiency.

TABLE 2
Oversize distribution of fly ash-10
Particle diameter
0.W

Percentage
(%l

16
8
4
2

3*3
22 f 3
60 + 5
82 + 5

Experiments
were conducted
primarily
with the main duct 0.555 m in length and the
guide vanes 0.185 m in diameter with vane
angle 45, because the large guide vanes
generate swirling flow more efficiently (i.e.,
with less pressure drop) than the small ones.
Except where stated otherwise, the experimental results that follow refer to glass beads
under the conditions specified above.
Effect of nozzle angle and collector size
When the suction fan was used in addition
to the secondary rotational air flow, the rate
of air suction Qi can be varied independently
of the secondary air flow QZ, Thus, to specify
the experimental
condition, it is necessary to
specify both the ratio (Qz/Q1) and the total
flow rate (Qi + Q2). The dust collection efficiency 77is shown as a function of (QJQi)
in Figs. 4 and 5. Figure 4 deals with experiments having small guide vanes with inclination angle 25. Figure 4 shows that q increases
as (QZ/QI) increases and levels off when

,Ot

wall by the swirling fluid motion, and was

then drawn into a bag filter by a vacuum
pump, approximately
at the rate of 1.5 m3/
min. The cyclone was operated for more than
30 min before the dust, caught in the bag
filter, was weighed to determine
the dust
collection efficiency.
In addition to the secondary air flow, a
suction fan was used to give a supplementary

01+02=0.1

m%

Fig. 6. Effect of the position of guide vanes on dust

collection efficiency.

184

-G
- 50
.=70

SIRa'O.216
CU=O.O58lm~/s
Qz=O.OL16 ms/s

60.

5o0

0.5

QzlQ I-l

1.0

1.5

Fig. 7. Dependence of dust collection efficiency on

duct length.

(Qz/Q1) is greater than about 0.7, independent of the value of the nozzle angle. Figure
5 illustrates the effect of S/R, and 8, when
the large guide vanes (0, = 45) were used.
17is independent of 8, when SIR, = 0.216,
and is higher than 8, when S/R, = 0.0486.
An explanation for the lower collection
efficiency when S/R, = 0.0486 and 8, =
45 is that the centrifugal force imparted to
the gases is too low. Comparison of Figs. 4
and 5 reveals that 17is about 95% (for S/R, =
0.216) when (Q2/Q1) is greater than about
0.7, independent of the value of (Qi + Q2).
The same feature was observed for (Qi +
Qz) = 0.12 m3/s with the small guide vanes
in the previous study [4]. The results discussed below were obtained with the large
guide vanes with 8, = 45 and (Qi + Qz) =
0.1 m3/s.
Effect of the position of guide vanes
Dust collection efficiencies with and
without guide vanes, upstream and downstream of the nozzles, are illustrated in Fig. 6.
It has been shown in the previous work [5]
that (for given Q2), a larger amount of air
can be entrained when the guide vanes are
installed downstream rather than upstream
of the nozzles. Therefore, it is interesting
to note that n is greater when the guide
vanes are installed downstream, confirming
an observation for just one set of values of
Q1 and Q2 in the earlier work. Thus we arrive
at the conclusion that it is advantageous for
both air suction efficiency and dust collection
efficiency to install guide vanes downstream
rather than upstream of the nozzles. As ( Q2/
QJ increases, q increases even without guide
vanes, but the efficiency without guide vanes
is still smaller than that with guide vanes.

dp lpm 1

Fig. 8. Fractional collection efficiency and particle

distributions of fly ash-5.

Dependence of q on main duct length

The dependence of q on H is shown in Fig.
7. It is somewhat surprising to see such a
marked decline in q when H was doubled,
from 0.555 to 1.12 m. This seems to be due
to the rapid decay of the swirling flow along
the duct: swirl flow has been shown to decay
exponentially with axial distance [ 6 - 81.
The optimum duct length for the dust
collection efficiency appears to be approximately three times the diameter of the duct.
This conclusion is based on the dust collec-

p
-

50

Q-0.0581 m3/s
C12=0.0L16m3/s
01

dp Ipml

Fig. 9. Fractional cdllection efficiency and particle

distributions of glass beads.

185

tion
fact
until
after

experiments
in Fig. 5, and also on the
that Qi increased as H was increased
H reached approximately
30,, whereQ1 showed no further increase with H

PI.
Dependence of q on particle properties
Experiments
were conducted on the dust
collection efficiency with the particles listed
in Table 1. The experimental
conditions
employed
were 0, = 45, S/R, = 0.216,
Q1 = 0.0581 m3/s, QZ = 0.0416 m3/s, with
the guide vanes installed downstream of the
nozzles. The measured 17was 98,95,87
and
48% for lycopodium,
glass beads, fly ash-5
and fly ash-lo, respectively.
This suggests
that the performance
of the present straightthrough cyclone is similar to that of the
reverse flow cyclone in that neither is effective in collecting dust smaller than about
5 pm.
Fractional collection efficiency
The fractional collection efficiencies Ar) for
fly ash-5 and glass beads are illustrated in
Figs. 8 and 9, together with the original and
collected dust particle distributions,
which
show that the modal size of dust caught by
the cyclone is, as expected, larger than that
of the original dust. In the calculation of
Aq, the size distribution data were smoothed,
for size ranges close to and larger than the
mode of the collected dust, so that in no
size range did the quantity of dust collected
by the cyclone exceed that fed. Figures 8
and 9 indicate that the critical particle diameter d,, is approximately
10 E.tm, for fly
ash-5 (because d, is 10 pm when Aq is lOO%),
and 15 pm in the case of glass beads. The
difference may be due to the fact that glass
beads bounce more than fly ash on colliding
with the duct wall. Figures 8 and 9 also show
that the cut size d, is approximately
4 pm
in both cases as the particle diameter is about
4 (urn when Aq = 50%.

CONLUSIONS

Experimental
investigations
of the dust
collection efficiency
of a straight-through
cyclone, which uses secondary rotational air
flow to induce the suction of dust-laden gas,
show that:

(1) Collection
efficiency
increases as
Qz/Q1 increases and levels off when Q2/Q1
is greater than about 0.7, independent
of
the total air flow rate, and the nozzle angle.
(2) It is more advantageous for both air
suction and dust collection efficiency to
install guide vanes downstream rather than
upstream of the nozzles.
(3) The optimum length of the main duct
appears to be approximately
three times the
diameter of the duct.
(4) The critical particle diameter was
approximately
10 pm for fly ash-5, and
15 pm for glass beads; the cut size was 4 pm
for both types of dust. This appears comparable with the performance
of a conventional reverse-flow cyclone.
LIST OF SYMBOLS

d cr
d*
D,
f
H

QI
Q2
R,
S

cut size, pm
critical particle diameter, pm
particle diameter, m
diameter of main duct of cyclone,
particle size distribution,
%/pm
length of main duct of cyclone, m
rate of air suction, m3/s
rate of secondary air flow, m3/s
radius of main duct, m
annular width of catcher, m
dust collection efficiency,
fractional dust collection
vane angle,
nozzle angle,

%
efficiency,

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W. Strauss, Industrial Gas Cleaning, Pergamon,
New York, 1966, chap. 6.
A. Ogawa, Separation of Particles from Air and
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H. Mothes and F. Loffler, Ger. Chem. Eng., 8
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T. Akiyama, T. Marui and M. Kono, Ind. Eng.
Chem. Process Des. Dev., 25 (1986) 914.
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(1965) 275.
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