Numerical Study on Momentum Transfer Between Droplets and Carrier-Phase in Wave-Type Plate Separators

The steam flow is simulated by FLUENT. The Lagrange-Euler method is used to simulate the droplet-laden flow in wave-type separators. Two-way coupling method is used to study the influence of the momentum transfer between droplets and carrier-phase in wave-type plate separators. A group of the trajectories of droplets with different diameters are performed in wave-type plate separator flow field. The result shows that the momentum transfer has tiny impact on the behaviors of droplets in a low velocity flow. However, the momentum transfer affects the behaviors of droplets more significantly with rising flow velocity. The one-way coupling method overestimates the diffusion of droplets. In addition, the momentum transfer affects the total pressure loss more significantly with rising volume fraction. The conclusion verifies the importance of the momentum transfer in droplet-laden flows, which could be used to simulate the behavior of droplets moving in a separator.