CFD Simulation of Air-particle Flow for Predicting the Collection Efficiency of a Cyclone Separator in Mud Handling System

Drilling mud was used once in the step of separating the gas and powder they were transported to a surge tank. At that time, the fine powder, such as dust that is not separated from the gas, is included in the gas that was separated from the mud. The fine particles of the powder are collected to increase the density of the powder and prevent air pollution. To remove particles from air or another gas, a cyclone-type separator generally can be used with the principles of vortex separation without using a filter system. In this study, we conducted numerical simulations of air-particle flow consisting of two components in a cyclone separator in a mud handling system to investigate the characteristics of turbulent vortical flow and to evaluate the collection efficiency using the commercial software, STAR-CCM+. First, the single-phase air flow was simulated and validated through the comparison with experiments (Boysan et al., 1983) and other CFD simulation results (Slack et al., 2000). Then, based on one-way coupling simulation for air and powder particles, the multi-phase flow was simulated, and the collection efficiency for various sizes of particles was compared with the experimental and theoretical results