Simulation of Flow Hydrodynamics in Oil-Water Cylindrical Cyclone Compact Separator Utilizing CFD Techniques

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

CFD Research Laboratory, School of Chemical Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology

Abstract

In this study, an Oil-Water cylindrical cyclone separator is simulated by CFD techniques. The non-isotropic Reynolds stress turbulence model (RSM) and eulerian-eulerian (E-E) multiphase approach are applied. The semi-implicit pressure linked equations (SIMPLE) algorithm is used for the combination of continuity and pressure driven flow equation for two phases to gain the pressure distribution inside the cyclone. The CFD simulation results show good agreement with the reported experimental data. The results show that cyclone efficiency is decreased by increasing the split ratio (SR), and the vortex created on the top of the feed line is deformed. Additionally, the vortex length of the bottom of the feed line increases until SR is equal to 0.50, and then decreases. The optimum height of cyclone can be found according to the vortex length at each special split ratio.
 

Keywords

References

 
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Journal of Petroleum Research
Volume 23, Issue 73 - Serial Number 73
July and August 2013
Pages 65-80

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