RT Journal Article ID 2fadd02857a0e536 A1 Liu, Li A1 Bai, Bofeng T1 NUMERICAL STUDY ON SWIRLING FLOW AND SEPARATION PERFORMANCE OF SWIRL VANE SEPARATOR JF Interfacial Phenomena and Heat Transfer JO IPHT YR 2017 FD 2018-03-01 VO 5 IS 1 SP 9 OP 21 K1 swirl vane separator K1 swirling flow K1 flow field K1 separation performance AB Full knowledge of gas-liquid flow in a swirl vane separator is essential for separator design and performance improvement. In this paper, three-dimensional numerical investigations on swirling flow and separation performance are carried out. The detailed flow field, pressure loss, and grade efficiency are obtained numerically. Results show that a long and narrow wake is induced downstream of the swirl vanes and the static pressure in this region is lower than that near the external wall. The pressure loss in the swirl vane part occupies a large proportion of the total pressure loss. The gas velocities, including axial and tangential components, decrease a relatively small amount downstream of the swirl vanes and the strong swirling flow can persist for a long distance until the top outlet. The radial velocity is at least one order less than the other two velocities and has little influence on the droplet separation. The distribution of the droplet size has a great influence on separation performance and there exists a critical value for both grade efficiency and pressure loss. The critical droplet size depends strongly on the separator design and operation conditions. PB Begell House LK https://www.dl.begellhouse.com/journals/728e68e739b67efe,0985c7947a06db4b,2fadd02857a0e536.html