Experimental eva‎luation of the Effects of Output Pressure Difference on Gas-Liquid Axial Flow Separator Performance

2/15/2024 12:00:00 AM

The need to separate the gas-liquid flows in many industries has taken a part of the process. Therefore, using axial flow cyclone separators with involute inlet and outlet has become increasingly common. The reason for this can be found in issues such as lower initial cost, the need for less installation space, and more appropriate maintenance and repair costs. Caltech UK has also designed and manufactured a type of axial flow cyclonic separator called I-Sep. The said separator has a spiral inlet and two spiral outlets. The exit of the heavy phase without passing through the cylindrical duct, but the exit of the light phase after passing through a vortex detector leads to the helix of the light phase. In the present project, the results of the laboratory conducted by the supervisor and during a research collaboration between Cranfield University of England and Caltech Company have been used. What is available from previous research states that in eva‎luating the performance of different separators, more eva‎luation is focused on the positive effects of separation and not paying attention to the negative effects in the outputs of heavy and light phases. In the current project, both positive and negative effects have been given special attention by considering the appropriate definitions of the effect coefficients and calculating the overall efficiency of the text on these coefficients. It is worth noting that the values of overall efficiencies presented in this thesis are lower but more realistic due to considering the negative effects of separation. Several cases of inlets with different volume fractions have been studied. These cases include two volume fractions (75%) in two inlet pressures (1.45) and (15.2) absolute load, two volume flow rates of liquid (2) and (3) liters per second, and two volume flow rates of gas (30) and (60) standard cubic meters per hour and two volume fractions (85%) in an input pressure (1/5) absolute bar, two liquid volume passages (1.75) and (1/8) liters per second and two volume passages Gas (5.52) and standard (55) cubic meters per hour, volume fraction (92) percent at the inlet pressure (2), absolute load, liquid volume flow rate (1.7) liters per second and standard gas volume flow (130) cubic meter per hour and volume fraction (2.95) percent in inlet pressure (55.1) absolute load, liquid volume flow of one liter per second and gas volume flow (5.102) standard cubic meters per hour. The effects of the differential pressure of outputs on effectiveness coefficients and overall efficiency were investigated. The results showed that the output pressure difference is a very important component to achieve optimal separation performance. Also, according to the obtained results, it was found that the present separator had a favorable performance in a volume fraction of the input gas of about (85) percent. The output pressure difference was in the range of (-99) mbar to (+286) mbar in the condition of the downstream control valve being fully open. The results show that in order to achieve the desired overall efficiency, the output pressure difference must be positive and its desired value should not exceed about (200) mbar. It is worth mentioning that the output pressure difference in the conditions of full opening of the control valves was positive for volume fraction values (85) percent and lower, and negative for higher volume fraction values. In the volume fractions of (92) percent and (2.95) percent, based on the output pressure difference in the conditions of the full load of the control valves, the separation efficiency has been reduced due to the negative values of the pressure difference. By gradually closing the downstream control valve and learning the value of the positive output pressure difference, the overall efficiency has increased.

جداسازي، سيكلون جريان محوري، جريان چند فازي، بازدهي

Separation, axial flow cyclone, multiphase flow, efficiency

Kaveh Ashkavti

Mohammad Akhlaghi