Research On Structural Optimization Of GLCC Separator

The gas-liquid cyclone separation device is widely used in energy chemical,environmental protection,bio-pharmaceutical and other industries,and has the advantages of high use efficiency,short separation period,and convenient real-time processing.With the development of gas-liquid separation technology and the increasingly stringent performance requirements,the traditional gas-liquid cyclone separator has gradually evolved into several types that are more common at this stage:spiral guide,axial flow guide vane,tubular string and so on.However,the complicated structure of separator chamber,the difficulty in manufacturing and maintenance,and the serious gas-liquid leakage of outlet make these separation equipments difficult to meet the needs of the current deep-sea platform in terms of high performance,small size,light weight and wide applicability.To consolidate the advantages of promotion and application of gas-liquid cyclone separation equipment on offshore platforms,this paper focuses on the optimization of GLCC separators suitable for oil and gas separation at sea,and according to the law of droplet breakage in separators under shear gas flow,the related mechanism affecting separation performance is demonstrated and explored from the perspective of particles.This paper mainly uses Fluent and Python software to carry out numerical simulation research on gas-liquid cyclone separation.Firstly,theoretical research is used to formulate the basic optimization framework of GLCC separator.Secondly,the Reynolds stress model is introduced to compare the classic and steady flow two types of GLCC separators,and the effect of current regulator on the gas-liquid separation is analyzed.Based on this,The optimized design of the structure was unfolded about gas phase outlet(straight tube or tapered),inlet form(tangential inlet,inclined inlet,spiral inlet),cylindrical form(cylinder or cone);Then sensitivity optimization of each structural parameter of the designed GLCC separator is carried out,including the size of current regulator,the size and insertion depth of gas phase outlet tube,the pitch and nominal diameter of the spiral inlet,the length,topline,baseline of the tapered section,and main cylinder height,meanwhile,the applicability of the GLCC separator at different inlet velocities,gas contents and sizes.Finally,Combining the particle size distribution in the GLCC separator optimized by PBM and the velocity field described by UDF on the droplet breakage model under shear flow,the main factors affecting the separation performance of the separator and the corresponding influence methods are studied,and the TAB droplet breakage determination model was established based on Python to verify.The research results show that the gas-liquid cyclone separator is designed as Steady Flow Spiral Gas-Liquid Conical Cyclone Separator(SFS-GLCC separator)with a circular current regulator attachment,a spiral inlet and a conical cylinder,the separation efficiency of the two phases can be increased to 96%,which can fully meet the applicability and popularization in practical engineering;When the diameter of current regulator is0.5D_l-0.625D_l,the size and insertion depth of gas phase outlet tube are 0.4D and 0.8D,the nominal diameter and pitch of spiral inlet are 1.17D,D,the topline,baseline,length of tapered section are D,2D/3,5D-h₃,and the height of the main cylinder is 3D-4D,the separation performance of the SFS-GLCC separator is optimal;The separation efficiency of SFS-GLCC separator is negatively correlated with the inlet gas content,and there is an optimal capacity;The droplets near the edge of gas core and wall of cyclone separator are more fragile;The small surface tension tends to cause large-scale migration and separation of the broken droplets,resulting in a wide range of diffusion phenomena in the separator chamber;Increasing the droplet size will reduce the stability of the droplet and increase the probability of droplet breakage.