How dust in gas affects cyclone pressure drop

Abstract

This article reports on a series of simple experiments on a cyclone which were performed to visually demonstrate the vortex length, to confirm its independence of inlet velocity over the normal ranges of operation, and to differentiate between length theoretically predicted, length based on cone erosion and length based on particle to barrel adherence. Simultaneously, the effect on pressure drop of a minor amount of solids in the gas stream was dramatically demonstrated. Concludes that when dealing with non-sticky solids minimum cyclone length is preferably based on the constant surface cylindrical vortex; when dealing with ''sticky'' particles, maximum cyclone length is preferably based on the criterion of 1.6 times the cyclone cylindrical section (or less than the natural vortex length); and the pressure drop equations in API publication 931, based on 3.8-cm (1 1/2-in.) to 3.66-m (12-ft) diameter cyclones operating with pressure drops of 1.3 kPa (5 in. of water) to 137.9 kPa (20 psi), are in agreement with operation under load and result in lower pressure drop than when operated with gas only.