Separation dynamics of immiscible liquids

Abstract

In this paper, the geometric design of a gravity-based separator is studied with a computational fluid dynamics method. ANSYS Fluent (18.2) is used to model the ratio of horizontal and vertical lengths with three dimensionless groups. A dimensional analysis method is used to develop a new correlation of separator geometric design. Corresponding plots were created and analyzed using nonlinear regression on the x–y Cartesian coordinate system. Also, manual iterations were performed to determine the coefficients in the general correlation relationship. The dimensional analysis results show that the Reynolds and Euler numbers have a direct correlation with separator design, which means increasing the Reynolds and Euler numbers require a separator with a larger length to height ratio to achieve the same separation efficiency. However, the Weber number has an inverse correlation with separator design, which means an increase in the Weber number requires a separator with a smaller length to height ratio. The new correlation developed in this paper can be used as a reference for separator geometry design to separate immiscible fluids with a wide range of fluid properties.