Experimental and CFD Modelling: Impact of the Inlet Slug Flow on the Horizontal Gas–Liquid Separator

Abstract

For a gas-liquid separator sizing, many engineers have neglected the flow pattern of incoming fluids. The impact of inlet slug flow which impeded onto the separator’s liquid phase will cause a separator fails to perform when sloshing happened in the separator. To date, the study on verifying the impact of inlet slug flow in a separator remains limited. In this paper, the impact of inlet momentum and inlet slug flow on the hydrodynamics in a separator for cases without an inlet device were investigated. The experimental and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) results of cavity formation and sloshing occurrence in the separator in this study were compared. A User Defined Function (UDF) was used to describe the inlet slug flow at the separator inlet. Inlet slug flow occurred at inlet momentum from 200 to 1000 Pa, and sloshing occurred in the separator at 1000 Pa. Both experimental and simulated results showed similar phenomena.

Keywords

• gas-liquid separator
• inlet slug flow
• cavity formation
• sloshing
• Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)