Experimental investigation and numerical analysis of separation performance for supersonic separator with novel drainage structure and reflux channel

Abstract

Recently, a novel supersonic separator with reflux channel has been developed that has a better refrigeration and separation performance. However, the previous studies are limited to the investigation of numerical simulation, too little attention has been paid tothe experimentresearch. In the paper, an experimental platform for performance evaluation of the supersonic separator was established. The effects of reflux channel, drainage structure and operation conditions on separation performance were studied by experiment and 3d numerical simulation. The research results show that the consistency between experiment and numerical simulation can be increased by adopting material with small roughness and increasing pressure ratio. The reflux channel can effectively improve the flow field and separation performance. And the novel cylindrical drainage structures can weaken the interaction between shock wave and boundary layer,infavorof forming the lower and more balanced temperature field in the nozzle. The experimentalinvestigationand simulation analysis were utilized to confirm the optimum reflux structure: LDepth = 30 mm, Dinsert = 7 mm and Dreflow = 24 mm. The δsteam and ΔTd can reach 47.72% and 17.41 K, respectively for nozzle with reflux channel and flush drainage, which are 9.02% and 5.42 K higher than those for nozzle with flush drainage and without reflux channel. The circular opening drainage without reflux channel has the greatest δsteam and ΔTd which are 48.28% and 17.98 K, respectively.