CFD simulation on performance of new type umbrella plate scrubber

A new type of umbrella plate scrubber was developed to address the pollution due to the dust, dioxide sulfur and other harmful gases, which were emitted from coal-burning boilers. The performance of the new device was studied through computational fluid dynamics(CFD) simulation and experiment methods. Initial work included experimental measurement of inlet-velocity, and gas phase simulation using Reynolds stress model(RSM). After gas phase was converged, particles were injected from the inlet of the new device. Discrete phase model(DPM) was used for particle trajectories determination. The pressure drop and the collection efficiency of the new device were predicted through simulation. The simulation results show that the pressure drop of the new devices is 230–250 Pa and the efficiency is 84%–86%, with the inlet velocity equal to 10.6 m/s and the dust concentration ranging from 2 to 22 g/m3. The CFD simulation results of the new device show good agreement with experimental data. The relative error of the pressure drop and the efficiency is approximately 4% and 10% respectively. The results obtained both from the numerical simulation and from the experiment demonstrate that CFD simulation is an effective method for this type of study.