Abstract
BackgroundIn this paper, a new axial separator for liquid-liquid separation composed of two swirlers and two separation chambers was introduced. And the dispersed phase was drained through three Light Phase Outlets (LPOs) while the continuous phase was discharged from Heavy Phase Outlet (HPO). MethodsThe Mixture model and Reynolds stress model were used to simulate the separation process. And the numerical results including oil distribution, separation efficiency and pressure change have a good agreement with experimental results. The flow characteristic was revealed by numerical simulation. Besides, the effects of volumetric oil fraction and water flowrate were investigated numerically and experimentally. Significant findingsThe results illustrate that increasing inlet volumetric oil fraction leads to a slight decrease in separation efficiency and a larger pressure change. And the difference between the wall pressure and the central pressure is larger under the lower volumetric oil fraction condition. Additionally, the pressure change and tangential velocity in the separator are proportional to flowrate. Besides, the separation performance at high inlet volumetric oil fraction, various density difference and viscosity of continuous phase conditions was discussed.
Published Version
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