Abstract This paper presents a numerical study of the gas–solid flow in square cyclone separators with three types of inlet configuration. Three-dimensional Reynolds Stress Model (RSM) was used to simulate the turbulent flow of gas phase and a Lagrangian equation was used to simulate the particle motion. The resulting velocity, separation efficiency and pressure drops were verified by comparison with measured data. The effect of inlet configurations on the turbulent dynamics in the cyclone and the separation efficiency and pressure drop was analyzed. Results showed that inlet configurations influenced the turbulent dynamics in the cyclone and led to different pressure drop and separation efficiency. The separator with double declining inlets (DDI) had the minimum pressure drop and similar efficiency to the separator with double normal inlets (DNI). The separator with single normal inlet (SNI) had the best separation efficiency and the maximum pressure drop. When a baffle was installed in the inlet of separator SNI, the pressure drop increased by about 191% and 34% for the separator with a straight (SNI-1) and curved (SNI-2) baffle respectively on the basis of the pressure drop of separator SNI. The cut and critical diameter of particles were 2 μm and 14 μm for separator SNI-1 and 4 μm and 14 μm for separator SNI-2, while they were 8 μm and 30 μm for separator SNI at the same inlet conditions.