J. Cent. South Univ.

(2014) 21: 2547−2552

DOI: 10.1007/s11771-014-2210-2

Effects of expanding zone parameters of vacuum dust suction mouth on

flow simulation results

ZHANG Yi-cheng(章易程)1, YANG Chun-zhao(杨春朝)1, Chris Baker2, CHEN Mo(陈默)1,

ZOU Xiang(邹翔)1, DAI Wan-lin(戴万林)1

1. School of Traffic and Transportation Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410075, China;
2. Centre for Railway Research and Education, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, Edgbaston, UK
© Central South University Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014

Abstract: Based on the parametric analysis of the expanding zone of the vacuum dust suction mouth, the flow in the vacuum dust
suction mouth was simulated by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software, Fluent. The effects of the expanding zone parameters
on flow simulation were analyzed. The results show that simulation effects depend on threshold values of the expanding zone
parameters of the dust suction mouth, and the threshold values of the expanding zone can be obtained according to the different
structures of the vacuum dust suction mouth and be selected as the geometric parameters in calculating, and also corners of the
expanding zone make unobvious difference in calculation accuracy and in computational efficiency compared with no corner. The
simulation results provide practical guidance to the flow simulation on the dust suction mouth.

Key words: dust suction mouth; expanding zone; threshold analysis; computational fluid dynamics

always used in simulation in order to easily set boundary

1 Introduction
In China, the subway ballast bed is always cleaned
by manpower at midnight, which is inefficient,
labor-intensive and expensive in labor costs. The vacuum
dust suction mouth not only can be widely applicable to
a variety of cleaning occasions for its contactless
cleaning method, but also is efficient and effective.
Therefore, using the vacuum dust suction mouth to clean
the subway ballast bed will become the trend in the
future. The vacuum dust suction mouth, as a core
component of the vacuum sweeper, is usually designed
by four methods, including experience design [1−3],
formula design [4], experiment design [5−7] and
simulation design [8−10]. The former three methods are
always completed after the iterative cycle from the
design to the experimental test, due to their strong
reliance on experience, and have many problems such as
long design cycle, high costs and poor effects. Nowadays,
the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation
method becomes one of the most important methods in
the research on the dust suction mouth because it can not
only avoid waste in actual test but also improve design
efficiency.
An assumption of the rectangular expanding zone is
conditions [11−13]. Neglecting corners of the expanding
zone and setting the expanding zone parameters in
random usually result in imprecise or incorrect flow
simulation results. Researches on the expanding zone are
rarely reported so far. Therefore, the flow simulation
effects caused by the expanding zone parameters are
comprehensively analyzed in this work, in order to
improve simulation accuracy under the precondition of
high computational efficiency.
2 Computation model
2.1 Computation parameter
2.1.1 Parameters of dust suction mouth
The rectangular dust suction mouth is adopted as
the research object to analyze the effects of expanding
zone parameters on flow simulation. The structure
parameters of the rectangular suction mouth are shown in
Fig. 1. The length, the width, the height and the diameter
of exhaust pipe are denoted by L, W, H and D,
respectively.
2.1.2 Parameters of expanding zone
When the dust suction mouth works, there are three
narrow slots between the bottom edge of dust suction
mouth and the ground, which are 10 mm high. These

Foundation item: Project(2012zzts082) supported by the Fundamental Research Funds of Central South University, China; Project(02JJY2005) supported
by the Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province, China; Project(20130843023) supported by China Scholarship Council
Received date: 2013−02−18; Accepted date: 2013−05−17
Corresponding author: ZHANG Yi-cheng, Associate Professor, PhD; Tel: +86−13787416968; E-mail: yczhang@csu.edu.cn
2548 J. Cent. South Univ. (2014) 21: 2547−2552

Fig. 1 Structure parameters of dust suction mouth: (a) Front

view; (b) Left view
Fig. 3 Calculation meshed model
narrow slots are defined as the air intakes through which
dust particles can be sucked into the suction mouth 3 Mathematical model
together with airflow at a certain velocity. Simulation
zone is always expanded to the outside of dust suction The airflow goes into the dust suction mouth from
mouth in order to obtain fully developed turbulence the expanding zone, in the meantime, picks up dust
[10−12]. particles and sends them into the dust removal system
The rectangular expanding zone is adopted as usual from the exhaust pipe. The process is calculated
in this work. The airflow that flows into the dust suction numerically by these mathematical models as follows.
mouth comes from the front expanding zone and two 1) Continuity equation
side expanding zones. The expanding zone parameters 
   ( V )  0 (1)
are shown in Fig. 2. The length of the front expanding t
zone, the length of the side expanding zone, the height of where ρ is the air density, and V is the air velocity.
the expanding zone and the slant angle of the expanding 2) κ-ε equation
zone are denoted by lf, ls, h and α, respectively.
k    
   ( Vk )        T k   P  
  (2)
t  k
  

    
   ( V )        T   
 
t  
  
 2
C1 P  C2  (3)
k k
where k is the turbulent kinetic energy, and ε is the
dissipation rate of kinetic energy. P is the pressure
obtained by solving Eq. (4):
2
P V  (V  (V ) T )  V (  V  k ) (4)
eff 3 eff

3) Bernoulli equation
Fig. 2 Structure parameters of expanding zone: (a) Front view; v 2 p
(b) Left view   Z  hw  H (5)
2g g

2.2 Mesh model
The unstructured grid is used to mesh computational
domain for the reason that the simulation accuracy can
be improved without the restriction on solution domain
topology and boundary shape [8−11]. As computational
domain is bilateral, a half of the computational domain
shown in Fig. 3 is meshed to reduce the mesh amount
and calculation amount.
The boundary conditions consist of the inlet
pressure and the outlet pressure. The inlet pressure is set
as standard atmospheric pressure, and the outlet pressure
is defined as −1800 Pa. The turbulent flow is computed
here according to κ-ε equation [9−12].
where α is the kinetic energy correction factor, v is the
mean velocity in section, p is the pressure in section, Z is
the elevation head, hw is the head loss, and H is the gross
head.
4 Parametric analysis
According to the mechanism of the starting
movement of dust particles [14−16], dust particles can
go into the dust suction mouth successfully only if the
velocity of the ground airflow exceeds the starting speed
of particles. According to Refs. [10−13], the air velocity
out of exhaust pipe determines whether dust particles can
J. Cent. South Univ. (2014) 21: 2547−2552
smoothly flow into disposal box. Therefore, the effects of
expanding zone parameters on calculation results should
be analyzed according to the air velocity into the air
intakes and the air velocity out of the exhaust pipe. At
the same time, the pressure should be calculated to
analyze the change of energy. The air velocity into the
front air intake is calculated to study the change of intake
velocity, because it is the most important among all air
velocities through intakes [9]. Furthermore, as the air
velocity and pressure are always nonuniform, they are
expressed individually in average value in this work. So,
the average air velocity into the front air intake, the
average pressure at the front air intake and the average
air velocity out of exhaust pipe are analyzed here and
denoted by front inlet velocity, front inlet pressure and
outlet velocity, respectively, for convenient analysis.
A dust suction mouth is employed, whose length is
480 mm, width is 240 mm, height is 50 mm, and exhaust
pipe diameter is 80 mm. The initial parameters of the
expanding zone are given in Table 1. Each expanding
zone parameter is chosen as a single variable in doing
this parametric analysis.
Table 1 Initial parameters of expanding zone
lf/mm ls/mm h/mm α/(°)
240 240 50 85
4.1 Length of front expanding zone
In the first place, the length of front expanding zone
is changed to obtain its effects on the front inlet velocity,
the outlet velocity, and the front inlet pressure. The
results are shown in Fig. 4. Also, pressure on the bilateral
symmetry plane of suction mouth is shown in Fig. 5.
Figure 4 shows that with the increase in the length
of front expanding zone, the front inlet velocity
decreases at first, and once the length of front expanding
zone is over 50 mm, the front inlet velocity remains
basically unchanged. The outlet velocity is hardly
Fig. 4 Effects of length of front expanding zone on simulation
results
2549
Fig. 5 Pressure on bilateral symmetry plane of dust suction
mouth
changed by the length of front expanding zone. The front
inlet pressure increases at first and then keeps nearly
constant as the length of front expanding zone is larger
than 50 mm.
The reason of the above effects is that the vacuum
degree in the dust suction mouth affects the pressure in
the outside region close to the front air intake when the
dust suction mouth works, as shown by Circle I in Fig. 5.
When the length of front expanding zone is less than
50 mm, the actual pressure on the front face of front
expanding zone is lower than the atmospheric pressure.
And this actual pressure increases and approaches
atmospheric pressure with the increase in the length of
front expanding zone. According to Eq. (5), since the
total energy is constant, the front inlet velocity decreases
when the front inlet pressure increases, and the outlet
velocity keeps almost constant when the outlet pressure
is constant at −1800 Pa. When the length of front
expanding zone is larger than 50 mm, the actual pressure
on the front face of front expanding zone keeps constant.
Because the air suction quantity cannot be changed any
more by increasing the length of front expanding zone,
the front inlet velocity keeps basically constant. Then,
the front inlet pressure and the outlet velocity both hardly
vary according to Eq. (5).
4.2 Length of side expanding zone
The length of side expanding zone is changed to
study its influences on the front inlet velocity, the outlet
velocity and the front inlet pressure.
The simulation results are shown in Fig. 6. The
front inlet velocity increases first slightly with the
increase in the length of side expanding zone, then keeps
basically constant when the length of side expanding
zone is over 50 mm. The outlet velocity is seldom
changed by the length of side expanding zone. The front
inlet pressure first decreases slightly with the increase in
the length of side expanding zone, and then keeps
2550
Fig. 6 Effects of length of side expanding zone on simulation
results
approximately constant when the length of side
expanding zone exceeds 50 mm.
Because the outside region close to the side air
intake is influenced by the vacuum in the dust suction
mouth, the actual pressure in this region is below the
defined atmospheric pressure when the length of side
expanding zone is less than 50 mm. This actual pressure
gets closer to the atmospheric pressure with the increase
in the length of side expanding zone. According to Eq.
(5), the side intake velocity decreases while the pressure
on this intake increases, as a result, its air suction
quantity through the side air intake decreases. Since the
suction power on the outlet of exhaust pipe keeps
constant, the outlet airflow is stable due to the fixed
outlet pressure, and the decrease of the airflow in the side
air intake causes the increase in the air suction quantity
in the front air intake, which leads to the decrease of
front inlet velocity. According to Eq. (5), the front inlet
pressure decreases when the front inlet velocity increases,
also the outlet velocity keeps approximately constant
while the outlet pressure is unchanged. When the length
of side expanding zone exceeds 50 mm, the actual
pressure on the front face of side expanding zone is
unchanged, and the increase in the length of side
expanding zone has no effect on the air suction quantity,
as a result, the front inlet velocity, the front inlet pressure
and the outlet velocity are all almost constant.
4.3 Height of expanding zone
The effects of height of expanding zone on the front
inlet velocity, the outlet velocity, and the front inlet
pressure are shown in Fig. 7.
Figure 7 shows that the front inlet velocity and the
outlet velocity decrease slightly and the front inlet
pressure increases when the height of expanding zone
increases within 20 mm. The front inlet velocity, the
outlet velocity and the front inlet pressure remain
basically unchanged when the height of expanding zone
J. Cent. South Univ. (2014) 21: 2547−2552
Fig. 7 Effects of height of expanding zone on simulation results
exceeds 20 mm.
Since the height of expanding zone is less than
20 mm, the connectivity between the expanding zone and
the atmosphere increases due to the increase in the height
of expanding zone, which leads to the decrease in
vacuum in the expanding zone. Therefore, the front inlet
pressure increases as the height of expanding zone
increases within 20 mm. When the height of expanding
zone exceeds the height of air intakes, there is obvious
local loss because of the obvious change of flow channel
section, which leads to the decrease in the total energy.
According to Eq. (5), when the total energy reduces, the
front inlet velocity obviously decreases as the front inlet
pressure increases, and the outlet velocity obviously
reduces while the outlet pressure is unchanged. When the
height of expanding zone is larger than 20 mm, the
expanding zone is fully connected to the atmosphere.
The actual pressure in the expanding zone and the local
loss no longer change with the increase in the height of
expanding zone. Therefore, the front inlet velocity, the
outlet velocity and the front inlet pressure hardly change.
4.4 Angle of expanding zone
The effects of slant angle of expanding zone on the
front inlet velocity, the outlet velocity and the front inlet
pressure are simulated, as shown in Fig. 8. To avoid the
influence on the height of expanding zone, the angle of
expanding zone increases from 15°.
Figure 8 shows that with the increase in the angle of
expanding zone, the front inlet velocity decreases slightly,
the outlet velocity decreases obviously and the front inlet
pressure keeps approximately constant.
With the increase in the angle of expanding zone,
the rate of change in the inlet section increases
dramatically, which leads to more local loss in total
energy. The front inlet pressure is hardly changed
because the connectivity between the front inlet and the
atmosphere is not changed by larger angle. Therefore,
J. Cent. South Univ. (2014) 21: 2547−2552 2551

Fig. 9 Models of expanding zone with or without corner:

(a) Model without corner; (b) Model with corner

different parameters are selected as physical models for

comparative analyses. The front inlet velocity and the
outlet velocity are used as the judgment criteria of
calculation accuracy, and denoted by Vin and Vout,
respectively. The grid amount is denoted by n as that of
Fig. 8 Effects of slant angle of expanding zone on simulation computational efficiency. As the change of parameter
results values of the expanding zone within separate threshold
values may affect calculation accuracy and
according to Eq. (5), as the inlet pressure is nearly computational efficiency, and then interfere with the
constant, the front inlet velocity decreases slightly due to analysis results, the threshold values of parameters are
more energy loss, also the outlet velocity decreases with selected as calculation parameters. The relative error of
more energy loss when the outlet pressure remains the front inlet velocity, the outlet velocity and the grid
constant. amount of model with or without corner are calculated
The above discussion shows that a group of by
threshold values of the expanding zone parameters | a A|
always exist. The larger the parameters of expanding   100% (6)
A
zone are, within separate threshold values, the more
accurate the simulation results are. However, the more where γ is the relative error of model with or without
the parameters go beyond their separate threshold values, corner, α is the value of model without corner, and A is
the greater the amount of calculation gets while the the value of model with corner.
accuracy is not increased. Therefore, using these
threshold values could get high simulation accuracy as Table 2 Parameters of physical model
well as high computation efficiency. Mode No. L/mm W/mm H/mm D/mm
1 480 240 50 80
4.5 Corner of expanding zone 2 480 300 50 80
The above analyses are based on traditional model 3 600 240 50 80
of the expanding zone without corner that is employed in
4 480 240 100 80
the research on the dust suction mouth. In order to study
5 480 240 50 40
how the corner affects the calculation accuracy and
computational efficiency of the flow simulation of the
dust suction mouth, whether the corner is considered or Table 3 shows that the front inlet velocity of the
not is seen as a special parameter of expanding zone in model with corner decreases slightly while its outlet
this work. So, two kinds of models, where the expanding velocity and grid amount increase slightly compared with
zone is with or without corner, are compared. The the model without corner.
models are shown in Fig. 9. For the model with corner, both its range of inlet
As Table 2 shows, five dust suction mouths with zone gets larger and its inlet pressure increases owing to

Table 3 Calculation results influenced by corner

Vin Vout n
Model −1 −1 −1 −1
a/(m·s ) A/(m·s ) γ/% a/(m·s ) A/(m·s ) γ/% a A γ%
1 23.00 22.90 0.44 40.29 40.73 1.08 25703 25978 1.06
2 21.17 20.64 2.61 41.93 42.33 0.94 31679 31696 0.05
3 20.62 20.28 1.69 41.47 41.64 0.39 31523 31647 0.39
4 23.04 22.73 1.32 40.13 40.60 1.16 42389 42648 0.61
5 6.60 6.53 1.11 47.28 47.43 0.32 25054 25327 1.08
2552
the increase in connectivity between the model and air.
According to Eq. (5), the front inlet velocity decreases
compared with the model without corner. Although the
front inlet velocity decreases slightly, the total air suction
quantity increases due to obvious increase in the range of
inlet zone, which leads to the increase in the outlet
velocity. The grid amount of the model with corner
increases, so the computation efficiency decreases. The
relative error of the front inlet velocity is 0.44%−2.61%,
the relative error of the outlet velocity is 0.32%−1.16%,
and the relative error of the grid amount is 0.05%−1.08%.
Therefore, the corners have very small effects on
calculation accuracy and computation efficiency.
5 Conclusions
1) The calculation accuracy depends on the
threshold values of geometric parameters of the
expanding zone. The influences can be neglected when
its geometric parameters are larger than the threshold
values.
2) For dust suction mouths with different structures,
the threshold values of geometric parameters of the
expanding zone should be found out and chosen as the
values of geometric parameters in calculating when the
demands of calculation precision and calculation
efficiency of simulation results are high.
3) The effects of corners on calculation accuracy
and computational efficiency are quite limited. The
computation model whose expanding zone is without
corner can be used to improve computational efficiency,
if the demand of calculation accuracy isn’t very high.
References
[1] XU Ning, WU San-da. System design and research on suction-type
street sweeper [J]. Commercial Vehicle, 2006(6): 83−85. (in Chinese)
[2] STRAUSER D P, FIELD R E. Street sweeper pick-up head. United
States 5839157 [P]. 1998−11−24.
J. Cent. South Univ. (2014) 21: 2547−2552
[3] PEEL G, MICHIELEN M, PARKER G. Some aspects of road
sweeping vehicle automation [R]. Como: Surrey University, 2001:
5−20.
[4] SONG Yong-gang, YAO Li-na. Research on dust removal
mechanism and dust removal system of highway sweeper [J]. China
Journal of Highway and Transport, 1995, 8(2): 80−84. (in Chinese)
[5] CHEN Zhong-ji, WU Xiao-yuan, XU Guang-pu, WANG An-qing.
Experimental study on suction mouth of vacuum sweeper [J]. Journal
of Tongji University: Natural Science, 2001, 29(12): 1483−1485. (in
Chinese)
[6] YOO D H, CHOUNG M S, YOU J S. Dust collection apparatus for
vacuum cleaner. Korea US7597730B2 [P]. 2009−10−06.
[7] OH J K. Cyclone dust-collecting apparatus for vacuum cleaner.
Korea US7879121B2 [P]. 2011−12−01.
[8] ZENG Guang-yin, LI Xin-feng, XIAO Tian-yuan, XU Yun.
Simulation for the design of dust suction system of highway sweeper
[J]. Journal of System Simulation, 2004, 16(12): 2770−2773. (in
Chinese)
[9] ZHU Fu-long. The structure research and flow field analysis of dust
sucking mouth based on sucking performance [D]. Shanghai:
Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 2008: 30−38. (in Chinese)
[10] YANG Chun-zhao, ZHANG Yi-cheng, OUYANG Zhi-jiang,
ZHANG Jing, YANG Song-zhi, ZHANG Rui-zhi.. Parametric design
of dust collection port of vacuum sweeper based on flow simulation
[J]. Journal of Central South University: Science and Technology,
2012, 43(9): 3704−3709. (in Chinese)
[11] OUYANG Zhi-jiang, ZHANG Yi-cheng, JIA Guang-hui, YANG
Chun-zhao, CAO Yu, CHEN Cheng-xi. Flow properties of dust
suction mouth with curled edges [J]. Mechanical Science and
Technology for Aerospace Engineering, 2013, 32(3): 362−366. (in
Chinese)
[12] ZHU Fu-long, ZHANG Guan-zhe, CHEN Jie. Flow field analysis
and structure optimization of vacuum sweeper suction mouth [J].
Machinery Design & Manufacture, 2008, 11: 50−52. (in Chinese)
[13] WU Bo-fu, MEN Jin-lai, CHEN Jie. Numerical study on particle
removal performance of pickup head for a street vacuum sweeper [J].
Powder Technology, 2010, 200: 16−24.
[14] BAGNOLD R A. The physics of blown sand and desert dunes [M].
New York: William Morrow & Company, 1941: 167−181.
[15] NICKLING W G. The initiation of particle movement by wind [J].
Sedimentology, 1998, 35(3): 499−511.
[16] LI Zhan-jun, ZHENG Bing-xu. Mechanism of the movement of dust
particles [J]. Blasting, 2003, 20(4): 17−19. (in Chinese)
(Edited by YANG Bing)