Gas-Liquid Flow Characteristics and Gas-Separation Efficiency in a Cyclone Separator

A cyclone separator is widely used to separate gas from gas-liquid two phase flow, but its mechanism is not yet well elucidated. The main problem of a conventional cyclone lies in that separation of gas is difficult in the range of both large liquid flowrate and large gas content. The purpose of the present study is to improve efficiency of separating gas and to determine the optimum configuration of a cyclone, and the flow characteristics are measured by using a spiral type cyclone. It is revealed that a gas-liquid swirling flow has peculiar profiles of sectional velocity distribution depending on the downstream boundary conditions, and that the use of a swirl breaker is very effective in separating gas. Several types of swirl breaker are newly proposed and are tested to determine the optimum configuration of gas-separation device