Numerical study of the spontaneous nucleation of self-rotational moist gas in a converging–diverging nozzle

Abstract

Spontaneous nucleation is the primary way of droplet formation in the supersonic gas separation technology, and the converging–diverging nozzle is the condensation and separation unit of supersonic gas separation devices. A three-dimensional geometrical model for the generation of self-rotational transonic gas flow is set up, based on which, the spontaneous nucleation of self-rotational transonic moist gas in the converging–diverging nozzle is carried out using an Eulerian multi-fluid model. The simulated results of the main flow and nucleation parameters indicate that the spontaneous nucleation can occur in the diverging part of the nozzle. However, different from the nucleation flow without self-rotation, the distributions of these parameters are unsymmetrical about the nozzle axis due to the irregular flow form caused by the self-rotation of gas flow. The nucleation region is located on the position where gas flows with intense rotation and the self-rotation impacts much on the nucleation process. Stronger rotation delays the onset of spontaneous nucleation and yields lower nucleation rate and narrow nucleation region. In addition, influences of other factors such as inlet total pressure p 0, inlet total temperature T 0, the nozzle-expanding ratio Ȧ and the inlet relative humidity ф 0 on the nucleation of self-rotational moist gas flow in the nozzle are also discussed.