Industrial processes such as calcining often require the separation of particulate material from gas flows. As production rates increase to improve return on capital investment and regulatory requirements on emissions become more stringent, old equipment designs are sometimes exposed as inadequate. This can show up in increased rates of wear, or emission rates that no longer comply with regulation. Often these problems can be traced to poor aerodynamic design. These tools have been used to study flows in electrostatic precipitators, cyclones, multiclones and interconnecting ductwork.
Flow is from right to left.
Before modification, massive flow separation near the inlet produces a large recirculation, indicated by unmarked flow in the top-left corner. After modification, separation is suppressed, leading to much greater uniformity of flow and in turn to greater particle collection efficiency. Laboratory-scale model at inlet ductwork. This image shows a view of the kind of scale model that is often employed for electrostatic precipitator inlet flow remediation studies. Models are produced from clear plastics, enabling us to use LDV measurements to measure velocity fields downstream of the bends, turning vanes and screens that comprise a typical installation.