Centrifugal separators of the cyclone type

• US 4,390,426 A
• Filed: 05/25/1982
• Issued: 06/28/1983
• Est. Priority Date: 11/08/1979
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Lab Society LLC
• Original Assignee: Lab Society LLC
• Inventors: Vicard, Pierre G.
• Primary Examiner(s): Prunner, Kathleen J.
• Application Number:
  US06/381,981
• Time in Patent Office: 399 Days
• Field of Search: 55/127, 55/416, 55/449, 55/451, 55/454, 55/457, 55/146, 210/243, 210/512.1
• US Class Current: 210/243
• CPC Class Codes: B03C 3/15 Centrifugal forces
• CPC Class Codes: B04C 2009/001 with means for electrostatic separation
• CPC Class Codes: B04C 3/06 Construction of inlets or outlets to the vortex chamber

Abstract

The present invention relates to improvements in centrifugal separators of the cyclone type, in which the liquid or gaseous fluid to be purified passes through an inlet blading which is shaped so as to cause the fluid to whirl rapidly in so-called irrotational flow with uniform longitudinal lamellar components, around a high voltage electrode. An outlet device firstly comprises a convergent portion which partly converts the energy of whirling into energy of longitudinal translation, then a blading which completes the conversion, and finally a divergent portion in which the excess of dynamic energy of flow is converted into static pressure in order to recover as much as possible of the whirling energy applied to the fluid upstream of the inlet of the cyclone device. The separated particles are evacuated through a tangential outlet. The invention is more particularly applicable to the purification of fluids.

Claims

1. A cyclone separator for the centrifugal separation of solid or liquid particles suspended in a fluid wherein the fluid is whirled about an axis and displaced therealong, the separator comprising:

a tubular body surrounding said axis and having an upstream inlet end and a downstream outlet end;

an inlet device at the inlet end of the body and comprising a first insulating core surrounding said axis and supporting inlet blades extending between said core and said tubular body, the blades being disposed to impart whirling motion to fluid flowing axially through said body, said inlet blades as viewed in transverse cross section taken normal to said axis being shaped to provide on each blade convex side walls mutually converging from the core toward the body and leaving between the blades trapezoidal spaces having parallel inner and outer boundaries and concave non-parallel side boundaries which diverge outwardly from the core toward the body;

an outlet device at the outlet end of the body and comprising an upstream convergent stage, an intermediate stage coupled to the upstream stage, a divergent downstream stage coupled to the intermediate stage, a second insulating core surrounding the axis within the outlet device, and outlet blades extending from said core to said tubular body in said intermediate stage and operative to rectify the flow of the fluid to remove its whirling motion about said axis;

an electrode extending along said axis and being supported by said cores, and having an end extending beyond the outlet device into a zone where the particles have been removed and the fluid is no longer whirling;

a voltage supply generator connected to said extended end of the electrode; and

a lateral discharge extending from the tubular body adjacent to the upstream end of said outlet device and operative to discharge separated particles.