Usability of cyclone separators as air filters in vehicles

This study deals with the use of cyclone separators as air filters in light or heavy duty vehicles. Cyclone separators were compared with the conventional air filters, which provide low particle collection efficiency with high pressure drop, and these characteristics are made worse by contamination. By taking into account the related studies in the literature, tangential inlet cyclones were considered in this comparison. The pressure drop and particle collection efficiency in the proposed tangential inlet cyclone were computed by using the mathematical models given in the literature. Comparison of the computed results of the cyclone with the conventional air filters demonstrated that the tangential inlet cyclones are advantageous because of low pressure drop and high particle collection efficiency and can be used as main or pre-filters in vehicles.