Design and simulation of supersonic swirling separator

Supersonic swirling separator has been developed for natural gas dehydration in recent years. Compared to Twister-I supersonic swirling separator, Twister-II type overcomes the disadvantage of uncontrolled shock and the steady swirling flow field contributes to high efficiency of gas-liquid separation. The design method is discussed. For the Laval nozzle, the contraction section is designed by double cubic curve method, while the method for expansion section is tapered tube method the same as the divergent tube, throat is smooth circular arc; the length of straight swirling pipe section for separation is 3-8 times of the diameter. The paper simulates the applicability of the supersonic swirling separator by Fluent. Studies have shown that the lower environmental temperature, the lower the outlet temperature, the easier water to cool, and the higher the separation efficiency. If the volume flow rate rises, the inlet velocity and the mass flow rate can be effectively improved. We can control the shock location by adjusting the pressure at the outlet of divergent pipe. The shock appears at the inlet in the working condition designed. When the outlet pressure is lower, the shock occurs in divergent tube; on the opposite, it moves forward. Beyond a certain degree, shock occurs at the Laval nozzle, the device fails to work.