Study of flow field characteristics and separation performance of inline cyclone gas-liquid separator
The inline cyclone gas-liquid separator has received much attention because of its high separation efficiency and compact structure,but the ability to adapt to a wide range of inlet gas holdup is the key to its practicality.In this work,the flow field characteristics and separation performance of a inline cyclone gas-liquid separator that can adapt to a wide range of gas holdup changes are investigated by computational fluid dynamics(CFD)and experimental tests in air-water media system.The CFD numerical simulation results show that when the inlet gas holdup changes in the range of 10%~90%,the gas-phase separation efficiency is greater than 80%and the amplitude of change is less than 9.9%,and the liquid-phase separation efficiency is greater than 97%and the amplitude of change is less than 2.2%.The experimental results show that when the inlet gas holdup changes in the range of 9.4%~89.2%,the liquid holdup of the gas-phase outlet gradually decreases and the gas holdup of the liquid phase outlet gradually increases with the increase of the inlet gas holdup.The liquid holdup of the gas-phase outlet is less than 4%,and the gas holdup of the liquid-phase outlet is less than 10%except at liquid flow rate of 12 m3/h.Comparing the gas-phase separation efficiency and liquid-phase separation efficiency under different liquid flow rates,the best separation performance is achieved at a liquid flow rates of 8 m3/h.The CFD numerical simulation results are slightly different from the experimental test results,but the overall trend is consistent,which can be used as an effective tool for the design of structure enlargement.The research results show that the inline cyclone gas-liquid separator adopts the action form of"strong cyclone+weak cyclone+gravity",which has high separation efficiency and good resistance to fluctuations in working conditions.
gas-liquid separationinline cyclone flownumerical simulationexperimental testingflow field characteristicsseparation efficiency