Modified shear stress transport model with curvature correction for the prediction of swirling flow in a cyclone separator

The paper investigates the confined swirling flow in a cyclone. The numerical simulations are performed using a proposed eddy viscosity turbulence model, which accounts for the effects of the streamline curvature and rotation. This distinguishes the current model from the conventional Eddy Viscosity Models (EVMs) that are known to fail to predict the Rankine vortex in swirling flows. Although computationally more expensive approaches, the Reynolds Stress Model (RSM) and Large Eddy Simulation (LES), have demonstrated a high capability of dealing with such flows, these techniques are often unsuited for use in complex design studies where computational speed and robustness are key factors. In the present approach, the Shear Stress Transport with Curvature Correction (SSTCC) turbulence model is modified by the introduction of the Richardson number to account for the rotation and curvature effects. The numerical predictions were validated using experimental results and also compared to the data obtained using the RSM model and various EVMs without the proposed modifications. The investigations started with a benchmark case of a flow through a channel duct with a U-turn, after which more challenging simulations of a high swirling flow within a cyclone separator device were performed. The results show that the proposed model is competitive in terms of accuracy when compared to RSM and proves to be superior to the RSM model in terms of computational cost. Furthermore, it is found that the proposed model preserves the ability to represent the Rankine vortex profile at different longitudinal levels of the cyclone. It is also more efficient in terms of the computational cost than the SSTCC model without the introduced modifications.