Numerical simulation of hydrodynamic performance of taper cascades in transient conditions

Abstract

The hydrodynamic performance of separation cascades involves determining the distribution of pressure and flow along cascades which are important from the design and operational point of view. In this paper, numerical simulation of hydrodynamic performance of taper cascades in the transient state is presented. This mathematical modeling consisted of a set of hyperbolic partial, ordinary differential and algebraic equations of transient flow in a complex pipe network. In order to achieve this goal, a MATLAB code, named Hydrodynamic Simulation of Separation Cascades (HSSC), has been developed. This code calculates the flow and pressure distribution within the cascade components such as pipes, control valves, tanks and gas centrifuges (GC). Using this code, the results of transient hydrodynamic simulations for a taper cascade with 4 stages and 8 GCs are presented wherein the working gas is xenon, and for different operational conditions, analysis is performed on the equilibrium time and gas holdup.