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Cyclones

José Renato Coury, Reinaldo Pisani, Jr.,
and Yung-Tse Hung

CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
CYCLONES FOR INDUSTRIAL APPLICATIONS
COSTS OF CYCLONE AND AUXILIARY EQUIPMENT
CYCLONES FOR AIRBORNE PARTICULATE SAMPLING
NOMENCLATURE
REFERENCES

1. INTRODUCTION
The cyclone is a well-known device used primarily for solid–fluid separation. It has
been extensively utilized and studied for more than a century, and much has been written
about it in the technical and scientific literature.
The objective of this chapter is to provide a practical view on cyclone performance,
presenting correlations useful for its evaluation and design. Theoretical aspects are kept
to a minimum while emphasizing workable correlations leading to cyclones with pre-
dictable performances. This chapter targets the readers with adequate knowledge in
physics and mathematics. Those seeking in-depth information on the fluid dynamics of
this device are advised to look at some excellent texts available, such as the ones by Licht
(1), Leith and Jones (2), Ogawa (3), Bohnet and colleagues (4,5), and Boysan et al. (6).
This list is by no means exclusive.
The chapter is divided in three parts. The first part deals with the cyclones utilized in
industrial applications, intended to perform solid–gas separation of relatively large volumes
of effluents. This is the aspect for which the cyclones are mostly known and deals with the
search for a configuration capable for removing the solid as efficiently as possible, with a
minimum of power consumption. The second part addresses cost analysis of cyclones and
auxiliary process equipment, such as fans, ductwork, dampers, and stacks. The third part
addresses a more recent application for cyclones: its use as a sampler for environmental and
occupational monitoring. In this case, the main objective is to have a device with a perfor-
mance that can be related to the current criteria adopted by the legislation. In all parts,
correlations are presented and discussed, and examples of calculations are given.

From: Handbook of Environmental Engineering, Volume 1: Air Pollution Control Engineering
Edited by: L. K. Wang, N. C. Pereira, and Y.-T. Hung © Humana Press, Inc., Totowa, NJ
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