Effect of Turbulent Pulsations on the Fractional Separation of Fine Powders of Metal Nitrides

Abstract

This paper presents a numerical study of a two-phase swirling turbulent flow in a separation element of a vortex chamber. The paper considers a process of fractional separation in the separation chamber with three particular features in its design. The main feature is the separation mobile element located at the outlet of the separation area. Changes in the position of this element can affect the boundary size and the sharpness of the separation. The second feature of the considered separation chamber is the presence of a rotating element along the vertical axis. This element helps to align the field of the circumferential velocity component. The third feature of this chamber is the presence of a branch pipe for the auxiliary gas flow supply intended to push the particles away from the chamber wall and to blow the separated particles in order to prevent them from agglomeration. In this work, the trajectories of the motion of fine nitride particles are calculated taking into account the turbulent diffusion effect. A possibility to control the boundary size of the particles, when moving the separation element located at the outlet of the vortex chamber, is demonstrated. Numerical study results show that the turbulent pulsations cause significant changes in the separation process and affect the boundary size and the sharpness of the separation.