Computational and Experimental Investigation of Separation Efficiency of Fluid in Vortex Separator

Abstract

This study computationally modeled the stratification of solid particles in the rotating flow inside a vortex separator into which particulate flow is injected into the domain. During the rotation initiated by the tangential momentum, the hydrodynamic force stratifies the particulate flow and interacts with gravitational force as well as friction, which make the flow instable and complex. For computational investigation, finite-volume method is applied to solve the two phase, turbulent flow model based on Euler-Euler formulation. In order to accelerate tangential movement of inflow, four inlets are implemented with equal angular spacing and three different interior configurations are tried basic, cone type and dish type. In addition to the numerical study, experimental study using prototype scale was also performed in the same condition, in order to validate the computational analysis. Among different configurations, the size of outlet for efflux of solid particles was found to be one of the most important factors in determining separation efficiency. The results have shown the effectiveness of the stratification as well as the validity of computational assessment. This work was financially supported by projects of &#8214 Development of Energy utilization technology with Deep Ocean Water&#8214 , KRISO of Korea. hydrodynamic force stratifies the particulate flow and interacts with gravitational force as well as friction, which make the flow instable and complex. For computational investigation, finite-volume method is applied to solve the two phase, turbulent flow model based on Euler-Euler formulation. In order to accelerate tangential movement of inflow, four inlets are implemented with equal angular spacing and three different interior configurations are tried basic, cone type and dish type. In addition to the numerical study, experimental study using prototype scale was also performed in the same condition, in order to validate the computational analysis. Among different configurations, the size of outlet for efflux of solid particles was found to be one of the most important factors in determining separation efficiency. The results have shown the effectiveness of the stratification as well as the validity of computational assessment. This work was financially supported by projects of &#8214 Development of Energy utilization technology with Deep Ocean Water&#8214 , KRISO of Korea.