Research on the influence of fluid viscosity on the inlet flow parameters of wiped film molecular distillation

Abstract

Wiped film molecular distillation is a kind of evaporation device with rotating scraping film structure, which is used to separate and purify viscous materials at molecular level. The feed pump of a wiped film molecular distillation is a centrifugal pump driven by a brushless DC motor. The fluid flow at the outlet has an important effect on the evaporation process. Based on the geometric model of the test pump generated by Gambit, the unsteady flow and head in the pump under optimal, low flow and shut off conditions were calculated, and the influence of liquid viscosity on the flow parameter pulsation behind the impeller, that is, inside the volute was investigated. The head calculated by unsteady flow model and steady flow model is compared with the experimental values. In addition, the calculated liquid velocity distribution during water transport is compared with the measured results of LDV in detail. The results show that the increase of fluid viscosity weakens the flow parameter pulsation behind the impeller of the feed pump and the flow separation tendency near the blade face.

Keywords

• molecular distillation
• centrifugal pump
• fluid viscosity
• unsteady flow
• fluctuating flow
• cfd