CFD-Based Structural Optimization of Rotor Cage for High-Efficiency Rotor Classifier

Abstract

Due to the uneven materials dispersion and high dust concentration in industrial applications of turbo air classifiers, a high-efficiency rotor classifier was designed. Numerical simulations by ANSYS-Fluent 19.0, the effects of rotor cage shape, the number of blades, and the blade profile on the inner flow field, as well as classification performance, were investigated. The simulation results indicated a significant improvement in flow field distribution near the classification surface with the conical rotor cage. Furthermore, there was an average reduction of 10.1% in cut size, as well as a 23.6% increase in classification accuracy. When the number of blades was 36, the flow field distribution between the blades was relatively uniform and a smaller cut size was obtained at a higher classification accuracy. A streamline blade with 52° as the inlet installation angle effectively reduced the impact of the airflow on the blade and eliminated the inertia anti-vortex between blades. The cut size reduction was 4.7–6.3%, with a basically unchanged classification accuracy. The material classification experimental results were in agreement with the simulated results. The discrete phase model (DPM) could well-predict the cut sizes and classification accuracy, but it could not present the fishhook effect. The present study provides theoretical guidance for the structural optimization of an air classifier with a rotor cage.

Computational Fluid Dynamics–Discrete Phase Method Simulations in Process Engineering: A Review of Recent Progress

“…Using the differences in physical and chemical properties of each component in the mixture, the process of distributing each component to different spatial regions is called separation. Typical applications include the cyclone separator [50][51][52][53], hydrocyclone [54,55], classifier [56][57][58], filter [59][60][61][62] and dust collector [63,64]. In the separation process, CFD-DPM is used to obtain the fluid and particle behavior in the internal space, so as to further study the separation performance [65][66][67].…”

Digital twin design of pneumatic classifier and its key technology

“…The physical model is the pneumatic classifier. Its main working principle and structure are described in the literatures [29,30]. The data transmission layer includes the operating status data of the classifier, the sensor data and so on, and these multi-source heterogeneous data is integrated and processed to obtain the twin data and realize data sharing and interaction.…”

Research and Optimization of Operating Parameters of a Rotor Classifier for Calcined Petroleum Coke

“…Aiming at the problems of uneven material dispersion and serious wear of guide vanes, some scholars researched and designed a new rotor classifier and carried out numerical simulation and optimization of the internal structure [25][26][27]. To date, although many studies have been carried out to optimize the operating parameters, the results presented showed that there are differences in the optimum operating parameters for different classifiers and materials, and few studies have been reported on the calcined petroleum coke classification experiments.…”