Particle-wall collisions and dispersion in wall bound swirling flows

Many industrial processes, such as cyclones, spray dryers and jet mills, contain particle laden swirling airflows. In these systems the particles are ‘centrifuged’ to the external cylindrical wall and the collision of particles with this wall is critical to the dispersion of the particles and consequently the performance of the systems. The ability of multi-phase flow models to accurately predict the particulate flow field is limited by the accuracy of the particle-wall collision models. Current particle-wall collision models developed in non-swirling systems are unlikely to be accurate in these systems; however there is no direct validation data available to assess these models and their impact on dispersion. This project aims to address these gaps by generating high quality validation data for particle dispersion in a model swirling flow and developing models of particle wall collisions that can be applied to industrial processes.