Improvement of the dust transfer system of an industrial unit using numerical solution

In the current paper, the dust transfer system in production line 4 of the Tehran cement factory has been simulated using computational fluid dynamics and a method has been presented to improve the system’s performance by changing the geometry. In this line to separate the particles from the gas, three electrostatic precipitators have been utilized in a parallel format. The shape of this line was modeled using Gambit software, and the distribution plates that are positioned at the beginning of electrostatic precipitators have been under consideration; then, grid generation was carried out for the created model. The model was transferred into Fluent software and solved numerically as a two-phase flow using the discrete phase model. Velocity values were obtained at different points of this system, and the trajectory of particles was drawn. The obtained results demonstrate a remarkable reduction in the velocity value before one of the electrostatic precipitators due to the horizontal duct; the considerable proportion of particles deposited on the walls of this duct. To improve this issue, a method has been proposed. In the modified case, the geometry of the horizontal duct was changed and the model was run again and the velocity and particles deposition values were compared with the current case. The results showed an increase in the velocity and a decrease in the sedimentation rate by 79.3 and 42.9%, respectively.