Performance Characteristics of In-Line Oil Separator with Various Airfoil Vane Configurations of the Axial-Flow Swirl Generator

Abstract

Recently, as the industry develops, global energy consumption has been increasing. Power generation using various energy sources is used to meet energy consumption. The demand for renewable energy resources is increasing as well as the demand for fossil fuels. However, fossil fuel reserves offshore are limited, and the continued resource development is causing the depletion of fossil fuels. Accordingly, there is a demand for resource development not only offshore but also in the deep sea. In order to efficiently separate water and oil, it is necessary to study a compact in-line oil separator. In this study, the oil–water separation characteristics according to various airfoil vane configurations of the in-line type oil separator are numerically calculated. The maximum camber and location of the maximum camber of the NACA(National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics) airfoil model were selected as design parameters. As a result, the maximum separation efficiency of 63.9% was predicted when the maximum camber value was 13.51% and the maximum camber position was 50%.