Numerical study of vortex eccentricity in a gas cyclone

•Vortex eccentricity in gas cyclone studied by CFD.•Increasing inlet symmetry and velocity reduce vortex eccentricity.•Single inlet causes vortex precession center deviating from geometrical center.•Effect of vortex eccentricity on cyclone performance quantified.•Symmetrical inlets significantly reduce short-circuiting particles. This paper presents a numerical study of the vortex eccentricity in a gas cyclone and its effect on the performance of the cyclone. The gas flow in the cyclone was modeled as an unsteady flow by the Navier–Stokes equations with the Reynolds Stress Model (RSM) as the turbulence model. The particles were modelled by the Lagrangian particle tracking (LPT) approach in an unsteady gas flow. Gas cyclones with the same dimensions and total flow rates but different numbers of inlets were simulated with the inlet velocity varying from 12 to 20 m/s. The vortex eccentricities in different cases were analyzed in terms of radial deviation and angular deviation. In addition, the frequency of the precessing vortex core (PVC) was analyzed by the fast Fourier transform (FFT). The results show that the vortex center in the single inlet cyclone has a great eccentricity and its precession center is also different from the geometric center, which reduces the particle collection efficiency. The increase in the symmetry of the inlet causes only a very small increase in the pressure drop in the simulated cases, but it can significantly reduce the vortex eccentricity, particularly by eliminating the eccentricity of the PVC center. The improvement of the vortex eccentricity can generally increase the collection efficiency for particles greater than 2.0 µm. The increase of the collection efficiency is mainly because the symmetrical vortex can restrain the short-circuiting flow of particles. The results can improve the understanding of the vortex flow in gas cyclones which may guide the optimization of gas cyclones.