Numerical investigation on axial liquid-liquid separators with different swirl chambers

Abstract

Centrifugal technology plays a serious role in liquid-liquid separation. The current separation devices including dynamic hydrocyclones with an outer motor and conventional static hydrocyclones with a tangential inlet have some restrictions, hampering the widespread application. Thereby, an axial separator with multiple light phase outlets (LPOs) was introduced and three different structure designs of swirl chamber were investigated using the Mixture multiphase model and Reynolds stress turbulence model. The results show that the conical tube can provide larger tangential velocity than that in equal-diameter tube. Besides the dimensionless parameter, G force, was used to evaluate centrifugal force in the separator and G force in 3# separator with multiple stage of construction presents the largest G force distribution. Additionally, the upstream swirl chamber plays a dominant role in the process of separation and the highest pressure drop in 3# separator leads to the increase of flowrate in LPO1 and LPO2.