Scale-up of Mist Swirl Separators
旋流板式气液分离器的放大规律

Experiments were conducted in three swirl mist separators, with the internal diameters being 340, 480, and 700 mm, respectively. The separators were equipped with 18 sets of swirl vanes. The effects of superficial gas velocity and geometrical parameters, such as the elevation and the radial angle of the swirl vane, vane number, the ratio of separator body height to diameter on mist separation efficiency and pressure drop were tested. Results showed that the separation efficiency and pressure drop increased as elevation, radial angle and vane number were increased. An optimal superficial gas velocity exists in the range from 5 to 9 m/s and it decreases slightly with scale-up. The optimal distance between the swirl vane and inner exiting tube is 32%~73% of the separator diameter. The mist separator should be designed to make the separation efficiency as high as possible, with the pressure drop less than 2 kPa. The structure of the swirl vane is one of the most important parameters by which pressure drop is determined. A pressure drop correlation was established based on experimental data and theoretic analysis. A scale-up procedure was suggested for the design of industrial mist separators. Pressure drops measured from two industrial scale separators (f1.52 m and f1.90 m) were found in good agreement with the predicted values, and the separation efficiency of greater than 95% was achieved.