A CFD study of industrial double-cyclone in HDPE drying process

Double-cyclone in fluidized bed drying is an important equipment which reflects the conditions of dryingin HDPE slurry process. Cyclone is an important unite of fluidzied bed drying in order to move the solidparticles outward to its wall. Therefore, flow pattern created in fluidized bed will affect industrialcyclones installed in dryer for dust removing. Pressure drop of the cyclones is an effective parameterrepresents the drying behavior. Substantially, geometry of cyclone, inlet flow rate of gas, density andparticle size distribution (PSD) can affect the pressure drop value. Fluidized bed hydrodynamic regimeis very complex and must be understood to improve fluidized bed operations through theoretical,industrial and CFD study of double-cyclone. Pressure drop is introduced as parameter related to thecyclone efficiency can be calculated with ANSYS Fluent software in the Euelerian-Lagrangianframework with RNG k-ɛ turbulence model used as a mathematical method. Proper pressure dropconcluded from industrial experiments and CFD calculation shows good fluidization of HDPE particlesin the bed of nitrogen and powder to reach the best fluidized bed situation and suitable quality of HDPEpowdery product.

Keywords:

CFD , HDPE particles , double-cyclone , pressure drop