Research On The Hydrodynamics Of A Primary Oil/Water Separator

CFD is a new technology used in analyzing the oil/water separation process. Effective methods are provided by CFD to design and optimize the structures, value the flow characters of the flow field, and predict the effects of the separation. The aim was to research on the primary oil/water separation process. The uniformity of the flow field and the tracks of the oil particles were the research focuses. Firstly, several different configurations, such as the baffles, the different inlets, and the porous baffles, were simulated to value their influences on the flow field. Then, the influences of these configurations were compared and analyzed. And the following conclusions were achieved. Some facts were found that due attention should be focused on the pattern of the baffles near the outlet; the down box with holes inlet should be first considered when there was no need to emphasize the capacity of the separation of the inlet configuration; a 20% free area porous baffle gave better uniformity compared to baffles having 5, 15, and 30% free areas; and two baffles were no more beneficial than a single baffle unless they were spaced closer than 100mm apart. In the simulation process, the physical and fluid dynamic models were set up and simplified, and some good results were achieved. Based on the models, good results could be achieved by substituting the water for the mixture when the dispersed phase was only a little fraction of the mixture. Secondly, based on the academic analysis, the simulation results of the oil particle tracks in the flow field were achieved. In the simulation process, the factors such as the diameter of the oil particles, velocity magnitude of flow, and particle group were considered. Based on the CFD models, the flow field figures and the tracks of the particles were obtained. It could be found that the separation capability would be weaken by the increasing of the velocity or the reducing of the diameters of the oil particles. At last, the simulation results were compared with the experimental data. And the experimental results agreed well with those simulated.