Influence of Turbulence Modeling on Velocity Profiles for Cyclone Separators

Newer aircraft engines are designed in order to obtain both the best performances and the lowest environmental impact, reducing the amount of polluting elements emitted in the atmosphere. The improvement of engine lubricating circuits is related to this task, aiming to a more efficient lubricant recycling when flowing into filtering devices. Cyclonic separators constitute one stage of the filtering phase. They are simple devices whose working principle consists in using centrifugal forces to separate two phases from one another, e.g. solid particles from a fluid or two fluids having different densities. The present work focuses on the impact of the turbulence models in the simulations of cyclone separators. The objective is to provide guidelines for future numerical analyses, paying special attention to the correct simulation of velocity profiles, which play a very important role in the particle separation process.