Comparison and Analysis of the Experimental and Numerical Results of Gas-Liquid Flow Separation in Axial-Flow Cyclonic Seperator

The performance of the axial flow cyclone separator known as I-Sep, with the aim of separation of gas-liquid flow of air and water is analysed. The experimental tests which have been done in collaboration with Caltec Company in Cranfield University are compared with numerical tests in different gas volume fractions and inlet flow conditions. The sensitivity analysis of simulation to the droplet size with the Eulerian model are performed and it is shown that the efficiency of the separation increases and the pressure loss decreases by increasing the droplet size. For two inlet gas volume fractions, 90% and 97.5%, the simulation was performed using Eulerian and RSM models with 10 micron diameter droplets. The simulation results for the efficiency of separation and pressure loss were in well accordance with experimental results. For GVF equals to 97.5%, optimum value is 88% for 0.799 (kg/s) of inlet mass flow rate. For GVF equals to 90%, two maximum and one minimum point can be observed.