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CFD FOR FILTER OPTIMISATION

Perfecting the design of bag filters

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) has been used in many ways to aid optimisation of gas
and material flows in the cement industry. German company Intensiv-Filter has brought CFD
capabilities in-house to enhance its use of the powerful technology.

Above: CAD-generated
layout of a bag house filter,
ready for use in CFD computa-
tion.
U se of the ‘trial and error’ principle is still valid in
some industries. However, the use of advanced
computerised technology to aid in understanding and
gas amounts to be cleaned are typical for cement pro-
duction. Therefore bag filters are basically installed
for the dust removal. Only bag filters are able to keep
to minimise costs for product development and design within the increasingly stringent legal emission limits
of the plant is a much smarter method. Computational under all conditions. Beside low investment costs and
Fluid Dynamics (CFD) awakens ideas, CFD reveals, maintenance costs, the filter plants must also contrib-
and CFD prevents mistakes - all at a much lower cost ute to the increase in energy efficiency. Exhaust gas
than ‘trial and error.’ amounts from 0.5-1.0million Nm3/h are cleaned at
Modern CFD programmes permit the simulation cement mills as well as at the cooler and bypass, and
and analysis of flows on the computer. The compu- volumes can be as high as 2million Nm3/h for the kiln
ter-supported analysis enables examination of the or raw mill dust removal. Improvements which lead to
dynamics of flowing media and provides a computer
model which represents the examined conditions of
an installation. The special strength of CFD simula-
tions lies in the fact that ‘trial and error’ experiments,
which are practicable in reality only with great effort,
can be limited by CFD to the most likely solutions of
the problem and with a minimum of effort.
In different areas of mechanical engineer-
ing the support of development processes
by computer simulation has turned out to
be an effective instrument, particularly in
the reduction of development costs and
development time. When analysing the
problem, a computer model takes the place
of the original installation and experiments or
constructive changes are carried out in the model.
If the model is accurate enough, conclusions about the
behaviour of the original can be drawn accordingly.

Right: Steps of CFD simula- CFD for cement industry gas cleaning
tion.
Because of the way the system operates, high exhaust

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CFD FOR FILTER OPTIMISATION

a reduction of the pressure loss play an important role 3. Solver: The necessary equation models for the system
in this regard. are applied in the third step, supported by sufficient
Above: Optimising the inflow Intensiv-Filter, a leading manufacturer of filter computer hardware capacity for fast processing of
in the raw gas room and plants for the cement industry, has made extensive calculations.
preseparator for a cement kiln
or cement mill filter use of CFD-simulations to optimise its products. 4. Post-Processing and analysis: The last step deliv-
In the first part of this article the basic principles of ers the results of the computation and allows their
simulation studies are explained. In the second part, final evaluation. By means of visual presentation
a number of case studies in the cement industry are and interpretation of the data, the flow-mechanical
discussed. qualities of the installation can be divined. Two-
dimensional cross-sections or three-dimensional
CFD-simulation studies in principle graphics are typical.
CFD makes it possible to predict heat transfer, pres-
sure loss behaviour, velocity profiles, particle tracking From theoretical basics to practical uses
velocimetry, flow phenomena and vaporisation CFD makes it possible to predict system behaviour
processes. All appropriate dimensions and physical in detail, at much lower cost than testing out system
characteristics from ‘the real world’ are collected in the configurations in the real world. Arguments for the
field and a very high fidelity computer model is then application of computer-supported simulations are
constructed. A colour-coded view of the output vari- manifold:
ables of the simulation model generates a descriptive • More exact and comprehensive analysis of the flow
impression of the examined geometry. in plants in comparison to the use real-world ‘trial
In the run-up to the simulation run on the com- and error;’
puter, the user fixes the geometry of the system. The • Fast results;
handling of flow problems is then organised in four • Once provided, various parameters can be varied
steps. easily;
1. Preparation: The first step is the most labour-in- • The effectiveness of geometry optimisation, e.g., in-
tensive part of the CFD process. The preparation stallation of baffle plates, can be evaluated fast.
encloses the generation of the geometry in a CAD
programme. Afterwards the design of the 3-D model Example 1
is imported in the CFD programme. Intensiv-Filter carries out the design of the geometry
2. Pre-Processing: The allocation of the net (meshing) of an existing filter bag installation in the Solid Works
to the model is the next step. Before the numerical CAD programme. A new raw gas duct was to be con-
simulations can be started, all edge conditions must structed into the filter, and the aim was to optimise the
be defined first. This includes the definition of the inflow of the raw gas into the filter chambers, to avoid
flow inlet and outlet as well as the roughness of the dead zones and to reduce pressure loss.
pipe wall, for example. In addition, the characteris- Figure 2 illustrates the results of the CFD-simula-
tics of the flowing media to be examined must also tion. The turbulence areas which unfavourably affect
be defined before simulation, including gas compo- the flow distribution can be recognised. Different
sition, temperature and pressure as well as resultant computations were carried out in the area of the filter
parameters like density and dynamic viscosity. entry and to model the flow distribution in the filter.

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CFD FOR FILTER OPTIMISATION
of the differential pressure;
• Reduction of operating costs.
The uniformity of the bag inflow
and low differential pressure in the
filter has been proven in practice.

Conclusion
CFD speeds up project work in
conceiving and realising industrial
dust removal installation, but it also
serves as a tool for basic advance-
ments. With a suitable choice of
the simulation model, optimisation
possibilities close to the installation
can be found. The key to efficiently
solving customer-specific tasks is
the networking of the CFD program
with the CAD system. Nevertheless
a simulation programme is only as
Above: For the retrofit of Suitable baffle plate geometries were identified and good as the user who serves it. The model construc-
an electrostatic precipitator, evaluated, based on the simulation results. The finally tion, the simulation realisation and evaluation need a
the figure shows the velocity implemented option clearly shows the effect of flow lot of experience. The CFD experts at Intensiv-Filter
before and after optimisation
optimisations. By an optimum position of the baffle have the necessary experience.
with CFD.
plates the recirculation zone was eliminated and an With its increased use of CFD, Intensiv-Filter has
homogenised approach flow into the filter chambers extended its core competence in the development of
was achieved. energy-efficient filter plants and systems engineering,
from the source of emission up to the stack.
Example 2 Due to the increasing importance of CFD optimisa-
For dust removal for the rotary kiln at Deuna Ze- tion of filter installations, Intensiv-Filter has focused
ment GmbH, the existing electrostatic precipitator on in-house use of CFD software since the beginning of
was converted to a bag filter. The raw gas room had 2009. CFD-based customer questions can be answered
to be equipped with filter bags in order to achieve the during the conceptual design of the filter plant.
necessary filter surface area. The spatial restrictions
and the available raw gas entry foreshadowed a dis-
advantageous flow distribution in the raw gas room
and an unfavourable upward flow of
the bag packages. The flow simulation Advantages of CFD Disadvantages of CFD
was to provide information about the
changes required in the inflow area. Physical edge conditions (e.g., velocities, pressure) can The model can only be an approxima-
The aim was to provide uniform in- be simulated and controlled precisely. tion of the real behaviour and can lead
coming flow of the bag packages by to faulty interpretation of the CFD
maximising the crossflow and mini- results.
mising the upward flow.
Figure 4a illustrates the flow simu- Specific problems can be regarded in isolation. Net grids can be spaced too far apart.
lation before optimisation. Areas with
very high velocities and turbulence Simulations delivers boundless data from any spatial Computing time for very complex
areas are to be seen. A special fin plate point and from any point of time. plant geometries is very high.
guidance system was used, result-
ing in the optimisation of the inflow Concurrent capture of all flow parameters in one com-
behaviour in the filter and filter ele- putational operation.
ments.
The flow optimisation resulted in: Fast development of virtual prototypes permits integra-
• Uniform inflow of the filter bags tion of the results in early planning and development.
through attaining the desired cross-
flow; Development of virtual prototypes reduces the neces-
• Uniform flow velocity in the raw gas sary number of real prototypes or supersedes them.
room;
• Minimisation of the upward flow Parameter studies are possible on many models, allow-
between the bags; ing full understanding of the problem.
• Significant reduction in the filter re-
sistance and consequent reduction Table 1: A comparison of advantages and disadvantages of CFD simulations.

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