Performance analysis of cyclone oil separators using CFD simulation

Abstract

Design parameter study has been carried out to optimize an automotive oil separator using Computational Fluid Dynamics. Design parameters such as inlet geometry, exit-pipe length, entrance height, and converging length have been simulated and analyzed. Oil droplet collection efficiency has been increased as the width of inlet geometry becomes narrow, as exit pipe becomes longer, and as converging length becomes shorter. Total oil-droplet collection efficiency of the final model with optimized design parameters shows 17 percentage improvement compared with that of baseline model. © 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.