Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulation of Pilot‐Plant‐Scale Two‐Phase Separators

Abstract

Two computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling approaches, the discrete phase model (DPM) and the combination of volume of fluid (VOF) and DPM, are developed to simulate the phase separation phenomenon in four pilot-plantscale separators. The incipient vapor phase velocity, at which liquid droplet carryover occurs, and separation efficiency plots are used as criteria for evaluating the developed CFD models. The simulation results indicate that the VOF-DPM approach is a substantial modification to the DPM approach in terms of the predicted separation efficiency data and diagrams. CFD simulation profiles demonstrate that all the separators are essentially operating at a constant pressure. The CFD results also show that mist eliminators may operate more efficiently in horizontal separators than in vertical separators.

Influence of design parameters of upstream Venturi pipeline on multiphase flow measurement

“…Many computational fluid dynamics (CFD) studies are conducted on gas-liquid flow. Some of the most common modeling approaches include the Eulerian-Eulerian model (Shu & Wilks, 1995;Yamoah et al, 2015;Zhang et al, 2019;Acharya & Casimiro, 2020), the volume of fluid model (Shu, 2003b;Laleh et al, 2011;López et al, 2016) and the mixture model (Shu et al, 1997;Shu, 2003a;Shang et al, 2015). In this study, the Eulerian-Eulerian model was used as a modeling approach to solve the ensemble-averaged mass and momentum transport equations for dispersed gases, as well as continuous liquids, allowing detailed modeling of phase interactions.…”