Experimental investigation of the effect of body diameter on cyclone performance in virtual body cyclone seperators

In this study, the performance of a tangential entry virtual body cyclone separator was examined on the basis of total efficiency and pressure loss. Cyclone geometries such as body diameter, cyclone body length and outlet pipe diameter are changeable in the test system. Necessary studies were carried out at different inlet velocities, different plunge heights, different body lengths and different cyclone outlet pipe diameters based on body diameter changes. A total of five different body diameters were used in the experiments, including four different plunger diameter and cyclone body diameter. The experiments were carried out in three stages. In the first stage of the experiment, pressure losses and K coefficient values were determined for each virtual body diameter in four submersible tube diameters and eight different submersible heights respectively. As a result of the experiments, it was observed that decreasing the diameter of the virtual body pipe increases the pressure loss. In the second stage of the experiment, the total retention efficiency and fractional efficiency of the cyclone were calculated for laboratory airborne dusts. Although the dust concentration in the environment is variable over time, when the cases with similar concentrations are compared with each other, there was an increase in the efficiency due to the increase in the diameter of the body. In the third and final stage of the experiment, dust holding efficiency was found for the cyclone used. Calcite was used as powder in the experiments. Powder having two different average particle diameter was tested. The effect of different cyclone body diameter and plunge pipe diameter on cyclone total holding efficiency and fractional efficiency were investigated. A decrease in the efficiency was observed due to the reduction of the virtual body diameter for both powders.