CFD Simulation of Single-Phase and Two-Phase Flow in Gas-Liquid Cylindrical Cyclone Separators

The petroleum industry has shown interest in utilizing the Gas-Liquid Cylindrical Cyclone (GLCC) separator as an alternative to the vessel-type separator. Thus, it is important to develop predictive tools for design and to improve the technology of the GLCC. Previous studies have resulted in mechanistic models capable of predicting the operational envelope for liquid carryover. However, these models do not address details of the complex flow field in the GLCC and related phenomena such as gas carry-under. This paper presents computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations of single-phase and two-phase flow in several GLCC configurations. The CFD simulations are compared with experimental data including tangential velocity profiles and tangential velocity decay. Good agreement is observed between the data and the simulations. An axisymmetric model for the GLCC is also developed. The axisymmetric simulations, which are computationally efficient, give good results as compared to the three-dimensional simulations. Preliminary two-phase flow simulations are also performed to predict the gas void fraction distribution in the GLCC.