European Symposiumon ComputerAidedProcessEngineering- 10

S. Pierucci(Editor)
9 2000 ElsevierScienceB.V. All rights reserved. 391

Validation of a CFD model of a novel recycle axial flow cyclone for droplets
removal from gas streams

19. Stanbridge and R. Swanborn C. P. Heijckers* and Z Olujic ~

CDS ENGINEERING TU Delft, Laboratory for Process Equipment
Sonsbeekweg 26 Leeghwaterstraat 44
NL-6814 BC Amhem NL-2628 CA Delft

Abstract
During the development of a new generation of recycle flow axial cyclones for droplet
separation a computational fluid dynamics model was used to simulate the complex turbulent
gas flow field downstream the swirl element. The Fluent 5 code was used in conjunction with
the Reynolds Stress Model (RSM), which is generally considered to be the most accurate tool
for solving rotating flow problems. Model predictions were compared with measured axial
and tangential velocity profiles. Agreement proved to be reasonable for the axial profile
except for locations around the centre of cyclone, where the outlet of the recycle flow tube is
placed. The reason for this and other model related causes for the observed inaccuracies are
discussed.
Keywords: Demisters, Axial flow cyclone, Computational Fluid Dynamics, Model validation

Introduction
Separation of droplets from gas/vapour streams is a widely encountered operation in process
and related industries, particularly important in the offshore processing of natural gas.
Traditionally inertial type demisters have been used for this purpose including mesh pads,
vane (zigzag) plates and conventional cyclones 1-4. Compact recycle flow axial cyclones are a
relatively new development3'5 which regarding the capacity and efficiency increases moved
the technology of droplet removal devices to a higher level. In other words, in comparison to
present designs these high performance devices enable both a considerable separator vessel
size reduction in new designs and a significant capacity increase in retrofit situations at the
same or even better separation efficiency.
A detailed description of a recently introduced commercial version of an axial cyclone with
recycle stream can be found elsewhere5. In the course of the development work on this
cyclone, CFD modelling proved to be a valuable aid, however more to indicate the direction
of work than to arrive at final designs. The latter was settled upon after a time consuming
experimental effort. Fortunately CFD has recently become powerful enough to model the full
extent of the complex swirling flow patterns within the cyclone. This encouraged further
effort toward a thorough computational analysis and optimisation of the performance/design
of the recycle axial flow cyclone. This, as demonstrated in this paper, has to be accompanied
by a limited but necessary amount of experimental work arranged to validate and refine

*Now with CDS Engineering

w author: z.oluiic@wbmt.tudelft.nl, Phone: +31 15 2786674, Fax: +31 15 2786975
392

properly the model employed. A CFD model must prove its value as process analysis tool
before one considers its application as a predictive tool.

Physical Background
Within the present oil and gas processing industry, particularly in offshore production, there is
a drive to develop more compact droplet separation equipment. In this way more capacity can
be processed through existing facilities and new items can be made more compact. To
accomplish this more use is being made of cyclonic technology of which Figure 1 shows a
side view of the so-called AXI 50 cyclone of CDS Engineering. The heart of the device is the
swirl element (2) that induces a swirling motion on the mist flow entering the cyclone (5).
Due to rotational flow component imposed by the swirl element liquid droplets hit the walls
(3) forming a film that is discharged into liquid drainage compartment through slits in the
downstream part of the cyclone walls. Droplet free gas leaves through the outlet where a ring
is located (1) to prevent re-entrainment of the liquid film. The flow recycle pipe (4) connects
the liquid drainage compartment with the top end (vortex finder) of the swirl element body,
i.e. the centre of swirling flow. Due to the high velocities the static pressure is lower at this
point than that at cyclone walls and in the liquid drainage compartment, leading to induction
and maintenance of a constant recycle flow (purge gas), which in turn forces the liquid
collected at cyclone walls to drain through slits. This is a special performance-enhancing
feature of this device that can be utilised in an effective way only if the design of the device is
fine-tuned. Among other things this implies a detailed knowledge of the complex highly
turbulent gas flow field in the cyclone and this appeared to be a proper subject for utilisation
of full potential of a state of the art CFD modelling.

Mathematical Modelling
A velocity vector at a point in a swirling or rotating flow in cylindrical co-ordinates system
can be divided into an axial, radial and tangential component. The tangential velocity
determines the driving force for separation. The axial velocity determines the residence time
of a particle in the cyclone. The radial velocity is usually relatively smaller than other
components, however its presence may be utilised as mentioned above to enhance liquid
drainage through slits in cyclone tube walls downstream the swirl element.
According to the experience, free and forced vortex flows are usually encountered in a
cyclone as well as a combination of these two, called the Rankine vortex. The latter one
shown in Fig. 2 is defined as

w ( r ) = A . r . e (-B'~)

where w t is tangential velocity and r is radius. A and B are empirical constants depending upon
the geometry of cyclone.
The extent of swirling in a flow is usually characterised by the so-called swirl number S,
which is defined as ratio of the fluxes of angular and axial momentum. The definition of S
along with those of the angular M o and axial Mx momentum are described below where R o is
the radius of the cyclone wall:
,% ,%

S = M~
~ Mo=2.x.pg, u.w. r2dr M~=2.x.pg. u 2.rdr
Mx "Ro o o
Typically, the swirl number is less than 1.
 393

The rotating flow in a CFD model is usually described using fundamental mass and
momentum balance equations in conjunction with cylindrical coordinates. These equations
can subsequently be used in conjunction with turbulent flow by adopting the so-called
"Reynolds stresses" in the Navier-Stokes equations, which incorporate the effects of
turbulence. The widely used k-e turbulence model assumes that the Reynolds stresses are
proportional to the mean velocity gradients and that turbulent viscosity is isotropic, i.e. same
in all directions. This is not the case in swirling flows where velocities vary considerably with
direction. Therefore the Reynolds Stress Model (RSM), which takes into account the
anisotropy of the turbulence, was employed in this study.

Grid
Computational fluid dynamics modelling basically involves definition of the physical
geometry, generation of volume elements within this definition and execution of the
appropriate calculations on these volume elements. In view of the cyclone geometry the
"unstructured", body fitted tetrahedral approach is chosen.
A picture of the simulated configuration is given in Figure 3. Due to the high mesh density,
required for calculation of the high swirling flow and the limited computational capacity, the
simulation of cyclone operation was carried out in two subsequent parts: (i) cyclone inlet and
swirl element and (ii) vortex finder, separation section, cyclone outlet, liquid drainage
compartment and recycle tube. Both simulation parts are related such that the velocity profile
downstream of the swirl element obtained from calculations of part (i) is applied as the inlet
velocity, profile of part (ii). The grid consists of a total of 114000 volume elements for part (i)
and 87000 volume elements for part (ii).

Boundary conditions
Model boundaries are the cyclone inlet, walls of liquid drainage compartment and outlet box.
This implies that for the inlet, effects of the entry geometry on the flow in this area are not
taken into account. On the outlet side, the model has been extended to account for possible
outlet flow effects on cyclone operation.
_. J tcl~ Gas Out

Ranklne V o r t e x

, i"'ud:;~*~:~

i Radial position

Figure 1: Internal configuration of an axial cyclone Figure 2: Rankine- vortex flow profile
with a recycle flow tube
394

The inlet velocity profile of part (i) is a constant axial velocity profile. This velocity is
determined from the desired gas flow rate and the cross sectional area of the cyclone tube.
The inlet velocity profile for part (ii) is the velocity profile from part (i) at the cross section
located 0.055 m downstream the swirl element body. This location is chosen because it is not
affected by the recycle flow thereby ensuring that the cyclone model can be split into two
without any special considerations being required in this regard.
The inlet and outlet conditions also
require definition of initial turbulence
parameters. The turbulence intensity at
the inlet and outlet is set to 0.05, which is
a common value. The turbulence length
scale is set to the equivalent radius of the
inlet and outlet areas. These values are
used by Fluent to derive the inlet
turbulence kinetic energy and dissipation
rate. Turbulence intensity will have little
effect on the downstream flow profile, as
the turbulence effects incorporated in the
Figure 3: Views of the cyclone CFD model Reynolds Stress Model (RSM) will
dominate 6. The surfaces of cyclone walls
and swirl element are hydraulically smooth; therefore the absolute roughness was set to zero
in all simulations.

Experimental set-up
In order to validate model predictions a simple experiment was designed and carried out using
a simple experimental set-up. Ambient air was used as test system, supplied at a constant flow
rate from a blower. Axial and tangential gas flow velocities were measured accurately
downstream the swirl body at cross sections corresponding with the beginning of the slits
(HI), halfway along the slit length (H2) and close to the cyclone outlet (H3). There were 27
measuring points along each of three cyclone cross sections. A specially designed micro-pitot-
tube was used containing only one small hole (0.3 mm) in micro tube wall. This tube can be
rotated by 360 that allows determination of points of static pressure and total pressure,
depending on the hole position angle. From the pressure differences measured at appropriate
hole inclination angles velocity profiles were obtained and presented as a function of radial
position.

Results and Discussion

Figure 4 shows a comparison of the CFD predicted and the measured axial and tangential
velocity profiles at three cross sections downstream the swirl element.
Measured tangential profiles resemble the Rankine vortex shown in Fig. 2. Tangential
velocity profiles measured at H1 and H2 indicate a rather small decay of the swirl, i.e. there is
relatively little dissipation as a result of internal motion and friction at walls and slits.
Furthermore, for all heights, the tangential velocity is approximately zero in the centre of the
cyclone. Towards the outlet, the maximum tangential velocity is located more inwards. This is
a favourable situation as it results in higher centrifugal forces in the centre of the cyclone.
Axial velocity, profiles at H1 and H2 indicate fairly constant axial velocities, except for the
 395

central zone. Here, the axial velocities are significantly higher due to contribution of recycle
flow entering the cyclone through the centrally placed vortex finder.
eo

Z~
HI 4,
~ 30 .~,~. 9 9 9 * ~ ~'~-~'-~- . . . . . ........... 4 ,~l~-m- =.,m_ w

1
lO

o
-30 -20 -10 0
Radial Posllon [mm]
lO
" ,120 30 -20 -10 0
P ~ d t i a l [ram]
lO 20

I ....... "~

4O 9 * * r e * * ~,**t o

i
H2

9. ~ -~o .lO o lO 20 -20 -lO o 1o 20 30

Ft.adi~,l P ~ t l o n [ram] Poa/rUon [ram]

80 , 60

S0

1,0
9 +
H3

-;~io -20 -10

i
. .
0
.

I~ldlal P o t i o n [mm]

. . . .
.
10

]
20
10

o
.30
mrJ l P m

-20 -10
r

0
9

10
m-t-~-~

20
t
30

Figure 4." Comparison of predicted and measured axial and tangential velocity profiles

Axial profiles produced for the same conditions by the CFD model agree well with the
measured one except in the central part corresponding with the location of vortex finder. The
CFD model indicates an increase in the axial velocity that is much lower than that observed.
The tangential velocity profile shows rapid decay of the swirl over the length of the cyclone.
At H1, the trend in the predicted tangential profile is con-ect, however local velocities deviate
considerably. Downstream, tangential velocities change to a constant value over the cross
section H3. This is far from the actual situation. In other words, a rather rapid decay of the
swirl indicates a too high turbulence dissipation rate. Namely, a high dissipation rate results in
high internal shear forces, which has a dampening effect on the tangential velocity profile.
The tangential velocity profile mainly determines the static pressure profile, which will
therefore also appear as a rather flat profile. This, together with very high dissipation rate in
the recycle flow itself explains why the recycle flow is not sufficiently visible in the axial
velocity profiles.
Another indication of the turbulence dissipation being incorrect and thus causing the
mismatch is indicated by settings of the discretization scheme. Namely, setting the turbulence
dissipation discretization scheme to second order windup for the RSM leads to divergence
during solving. Divergence even occurs at under-relaxation factors as low as 0.05. Solution is
396

achieved with first order windup for turbulence dissipation, however at the cost of a decreased
accuracy of the extent of turbulence dissipation.
The origin of the high turbulence dissipation rate is most probably in inlet boundary
conditions. Here, the turbulence intensity and length scale were set at 0.05 and 0.021,
respectively, with the thought that this isotropic turbulence specification will have negligible
effect on the downstream cells in the model. However, there is little turbulence production
downstream of the swirl element. Therefore, the calculations which lead to a solution, i.e.
equilibrium of the flow will be dominated be the inlet boundary condition. This affects the
pressure profiles and the recycle flow as indicated above. Similarly, at the pressure outlet,
isotropic turbulence is assumed. However, as the outlet boundary conditions are located
downstream and far away from the cyclone, this will have negligible effect on the profiles. In
an attempt to improve the results, the outlet side turbulence parameters from part (i) were
applied to the inlet boundary of part (ii), similar to the velocities. This ensured the
convergence, but did not lead to improved accuracy.

Conclusions
Experiments have been carried out to validate a CFD model used to simulate the single phase
gas flow field in a prototype of a new recycle flow axial cyclone. The commercially available
Fluent 5 code in conjunction with the RSM turbulence model and appropriate boundary.
conditions produced axial and tangential velocity profiles that partly deviate considerably
from observed ones. Further model refinement work is needed to improve predictive accuracy
of the model. More realistic approach will be obtained by simulating the cyclone in one piece
in conjunction with a fine hexahedral mesh. This is a prerequisite for next, application
oriented simulation step, the incorporation of liquid phase.

Nomenclature Subscripts Greek letters

M momentum, kgI~s 2 0 ref. to cyclone wall p density, kg/m 3
r, R radius, m g gas 0 angle, rad
u axial velocity, m/s r radial
v radial velocity, m/s t tangential
w tangential velocity, m/s x axial
x distance in x direction, m 0 angular

References
1. Burkholz, A., Droplet Separation, VCH Verlag, Weinheim, 1989.
2. Verlan, C.C.J., Olujic, Z. and de Graauw, J.; Performance Evaluation of Impingement
Gas/Liquid Separators, Proc. of 4 th Int. Conf. on Multi-Phase Flow, Nice, 19-21 June,
paper C2.
3. Swanborn, R., A New Approach to the Design of Gas-Liquid Separators for the Oil
Industry, Dissertation, Delft University of Technology, 1988.
4. Verlaan, C. C. J., Performance of Novel Mist Eliminators, Dissertation, Delft University
of Technology, 1991.
5. Stanbridge, D., Swanborn, R. and Olujic, Z., A Novel Recycle Axial Flow Cyclone with
Strongly Improved Characteristics for High-Pressure and High-Throughput Operation,
Proc. o f 9th Int. Conf. Multiphase 99, BHR Group Conference Series Publication No. 35,
Professional Engineering Publishing Ltd, Bury St Edmunds and London, 1999, p. 555.
6. Fluent Manual, Release 4.3, Fluent. Inc., Lebanon, NH, USA, 1993.