Open AccessDesign and Development of Gas-Liquid Cylindrical Cyclone Compact Separators for Three-Phase Flow
Author(s) -
R S Mohan,
O Shoham
Publication year - 2001
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Reports
DOI - 10.2172/773336
Subject(s) - cyclone (programming language) , cyclonic separation , two phase flow , flow (mathematics) , mechanics , development (topology) , materials science , environmental science , petroleum engineering , meteorology , geology , mechanical engineering , physics , engineering , mathematics , inlet , mathematical analysis , field programmable gate array , embedded system
The objective of this five-year project (October 1997 - September 2002) was to expand the current research activities of Tulsa University Separation Technology Projects (TUSTP) to multiphase oil/water/gas separation. This project was executed in two phases. Phase I (1997 - 2000) focused on the investigations of the complex multiphase hydrodynamic flow behavior in a three-phase Gas-Liquid Cylindrical Cyclone (GLCC) Separator. The activities of this phase included the development of a mechanistic model, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulator, and detailed experimentation on the three-phase GLCC. The experimental and CFD simulation results will be suitably integrated with the mechanistic model. In Phase II (2000 - 2002), the developed GLCC separator will be tested under high pressure and real crude conditions. This is crucial for validating the GLCC design for field application and facilitating easy and rapid technology deployment. Design criteria for industrial applications will be developed based on these results and will be incorporated into the mechanistic model by TUSTP