Abstract
Air drying technology was developed as an equipment for reducing of moisture content from wastewater treatment and waterworks sludge cake and reproducing it by reusable matter. Advantage of cyclone type pneumatic dehydrator is simple and excellent drying performance. The air drying equipment was composed to the air ejector which made high-speed fluid field, and cyclone which made circling fluid field. Dewatered cake was crushed at the high-speed zone as first step, and formed with dried powder of sphere shape by the collision between particles at the circling fluid zone. In this study, a CFD analysis has been performed to predict air-sludge particles flow in cyclone and ejector of pneumatic dehydrator. The computational results showed typical Rankine vortex structure which was frequently found in swirling flow phenomena. And the conical type wedge in lower part of a cyclone prevented accumulation of the sludge particles in the cyclone. Therefore, this technology was effective in drying of dehydrated cake of waterworks sludge.