Analysis of buckling phenomena on cyclone separator
Aim:
To analyse the buckling phenomena on the cyclone separator stand. To model the stiffner for the cyclone separator stand and analyse the best position to place it.
Objective:
- To analyse the buckling phenomena on the cyclone separator stand without stiffner.
- Model the stiffner for the cyclone separator stand.
- To analyse the optimum or best position for placing the stiffner on the cyclone separator stand.
Buckling phenomena:
Buckling is a type of phenomena occur in the structural element due to the application of load. The buckling occurs in the element when one end of the element is kept as fixed and the load is applied on the other end. The element or material tend to buckles before the major deformation occurs. The excessive force beyond the buckling limit may lead to the deformation of the material.
Cyclone separator:
Cyclone separator is designed mainly to separate the liquid phase or separating the some specific particles from the gas stream.
Part model:
From the cyclone separator CAD model, the stand itself is separated for the buckling analysis.
Once the analysis was done, the cyclone separator stand is provided with a stiffner inorder to increase its buckling factor of safety.
Simulation setup:
a) Simulation of cyclone separator stand without stiffner:
The cyclone separator stand is derived from the cyclone separator model by suppressing other components.The simulation is initiated by assigning the material to the stand. In this analysis, the material provided is alloy steel.
Then the fixture condition is provided for the 4 legs of the stand.
The force or load of 150KN is provided on the face opposite to the fixed legs.
Finally, the fine mesh is provided for obtaining the result with higher accuracy.
b) Simulation of cyclone separator stand with stiffner:
The stiffner is designed on the cyclone separator stand. The main objective of this simulation is to find the perfect position of the stiffner based on the buckling factor of safety. The same material (alloy steel) is assigned for the simulation of cyclone separator stand with stiffner.
The fixture condition is provided at the end of 4 legs of the stand.
The same force of 150KN is applied on the face opposite to the fixed legs.
The fine mesh is assigned for material for obtaining the results with higher accuracy.
Results and discussions:
a) Simulation of cyclone separator stand without stiffner:
The image of the cyclone separator stand without stiffner after the buckling simulation is provided below with its buckling factor of safety value.
The buckling factor of safety of the cyclone separator stand without stiffner is obtained as 9.3688. It exhibits that the object failures when the applied load is 9.3688 times greater than the load applied for the simulation.
b) Simulation of cyclone separator stand with stiffner:
The image of the cyclone separator stand with stiffner after the buckling simulation is provided below with its buckling factor of safety value. This simulation is done by placing the stiffner at a distance of 1000mm from the top face of the stand.
The buckling factor of safety of the cyclone separator stand with stiffner is obtained as 27.76. It exhibits that the object failures when the applied load is 27.76 times greater than the load applied for the simulation. It also explains that the stand can withstand higher amount of force when the stiffner is provided.
c) Design study for analysing the best place for the stiffner:
The new design study is made for analysing the best position of the stiffner. The best position is the position of the stiffner at which the buckling factor of safety of the stand is maximum.
- In the design study, the offset distance of the stiffner is set as a variable. The minimum offset distance is provided as 250mm and the maximum distance of 1750mm is provided. The distance is stepped of 250mm.
- In the constraints section, a condition is provided from which the buckling factor of safety should be greater than 25.
- The main goal of this design study is to obtain the optimum or best position of the stiffner in which the buckling factor of safety is maximum.
The results of all scenarios are provided below with the optimum one.
Thus, the results show that the best offset position of the stiffner is 1000mm from the top face of the stand. At this position, the cyclone separator stand has a maximum buckling factor of safety of 27.759666 which is the maximum value of all other scenarios.
CAD files:
https://drive.google.com/file/
Reference:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckling
Conclusion:
Thus, the buckling analysis was done on the cyclone separator stand with and without the stiffner. The optimum position of the stiffner is also obtained.