Cyclone size

[panettad]

I have about 13.5 feet in the center of my shop. The outside walls are 10 feet.
I am thinking of putting a cyclone on one end in the center and running a 6 in
main with wyes to the outside walls.

My 1st question is - since I have the extra height - would I get better performance
from a 1D3D cyclone compared to your 1D1.6D cyclone?

2nd - with the 14 in impeller and 5HP motor - would I be better off with a 20 in
diameter cyclone?

Has anyone here compared?

Ed Morgano or Matt;
If the answers to either question above is favorable, would it be cost effective
for you to make the larger sizes - or would you have to re-tool everything?
I am assuming you have hot done so already.

Thanks,
Dave

 

[imported_admin]

Dave,
The 1d3d configuration is supposed to be more effecient. However, if you look at some of the research on the subject, they are getting upwards of 99% seperation with either. One being 99.6 and the other being 99. 8 or something to that effect. I haven't looked at the exact numbers for a while, but they were close. So, what you would be getting is maybe a .2% effeciency increase with a lot of additional expense. Unless you build one yourself, there wouldn't be a lot to be gained. I have to say that I have been running my cyclone hard for about 6 months and have gotten less than a cup full of dust out of the filters. That says that the cyclone is working pretty well.
Along the same lines, one of the factors that determines a cyclones effeciency is the inlet velocity. A cyclone uses this velocity to seperate particles from air. The faster the better. With a 20" cyclone you would get about a 10% decrease in air velocity. I really don't know what that would do to effeciency, but I suspect it wouldn't help. What you would gain is less sp drop and therefore slightly more air flow. Efficent layout ant piping will do about as much for air flow. Y's and 45's instead of 90's and t's. Eliminate 2 turns in your system and you'll gain a lot.
Hope this helps.

Ed