Some Vapor-Liquid Cyclone Design Geometries and Features

3 Some Vapor-Liquid Cyclone Design Geometries and Features 

A true vortex breaker is normally inserted just ahead of the vessel s liquid exit nozzle as shown in Fig. 13.1.1. This is a very important feature in the geometry at hand since the angular momentum of the incoming gas-liquid mixture will produce bulk rotation of the liquid pool. If a vortex is allowed to form, some of the incoming gas may exit out the underflow and create pump cavitation or other problems downstream. The vortex will also act as a type of fluidic choke and restrict the flow rate out the bottom liquid exit nozzle. 

1 through 13.3.6 depict several other vapor-liquid cyclone geometries and are somewhat illustrative of the great variety of designs in commercial service. These illustrations are indicative and not exhaustive. 

The separator on the far right of Fig. 13.3.4 and in Fig. 13.3.5 is a rather sophisticated cylindrical-bodied flow-through or straight-through type cyclone. 

Because they can more effectively separate smaller droplets relative to a conventional, large, single-stage cyclone, multiclones are reported to have turn-down ratios (maximum-to-minimum volumetric feed rate that still meets performance targets) as high as 4 1. 

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