Experimental study on a swirl-vane separator for gas–liquid separation

Abstract

Abstract Experimental research on a swirl-vane gas–liquid separator has been conducted with the aim to explore its application in downhole gas–water separation systems. With the help of a high-speed camera, the effect of gas content, Reynolds number and flow conditioning elements on the separation performance were investigated. The change of flow pattern will lead to the oscillation of air core inside the separator, which has significant influence on the separation performance. Experimental results show that both the increase of Reynolds number and the arranging of flow conditioning elements can only restrain the oscillation of air core to a certain degree. In addition, according to the evolution of air core, the flow pattern can be divided into: rod air core flow, tadpole-shaped air core flow, oscillating air core flow and swirling annular flow. Compared with the gas–liquid flow pattern map in vertical tube with the same inner diameter, it can be found that the flow pattern of gas–liquid mixture before entering the separator has significant influence on the state of the air core. In the end, the operational envelope limits of the separator were determined experimentally. Due to the effect of flow pattern, the separator is more suitable to be operated at low gas content. This research leads to a better understanding of hydraulic characteristics in this kind of separator.